Who's been in my pond?

[spandit]

Saw these tracks just under the water as I was introducing some fish to my pond. I know who made them (each phew about 2" long) as I've seen the culprit in that exact spot a few weeks before

 

[Dogoak]

Maybe a Heron? Or are they too small?

 

[Mesquite]

Moorhen ?

 

[Macaroon]

Looks like Heron to me, too.

 

[Toddy]

….and you're feeding it more fishies ?



On t'other hand a Heron's a pretty cool bird to see close up.

M

 

[spandit]

Pretty sure it's a heron. Not well defined enough to see the detail to confirm it but it was definitely a grey heron I saw by the pond a while ago. Astonishingly big & I hope it hasn't already taken my fish as I could only spot one of them today (we put 6 in). There's a lot of plant cover so hopefully they can hide from it

 

[Toddy]

….is it a Heron? I thought it'd be bigger somehow ?

M

 

[Toddy]

They need rocks to hide from Heron's though, or those mesh things on top of the water that stop the birds landing close enough to nab the fish.

One of my neighbours is ready to shoot the next heron he sees sitting on his roof. He put a fortune's worth of koi carp into his pond and it scoffed the lot.

Ponds with 'things' around them discourage herons too though. Planters, bushes, that kind of thing. They like open marsh, reed beds and shallow burns. Clear ponds are just like MacDonald's drive in thingies to them.

M

 

[spandit]

I presume it's been eating the frogs that have made their way into the pond, or possibly the newts. We've only just put fish in but it's an expensive method of bird feeding so not planning on restocking any time soon.

I notice there are some old discarded clay drainage pipes lying about so I'll sink a few of these to give them more hiding places. I don't want to start putting nets or other deterrents up as it's supposed to be a natural looking pond.

 

[Drain Bamaged]

I have no idea how big your pond is but one trick that usually works with Herons and Egrets is a trip wire around the pond/lake, they tend not to like to land in the water but rather on the bank and then walk into the water. A simple single strand of cheap nylon fishing line strung around the bank about 10 “high either right on the waters edge of just into the water seems to stop them. Another trick that works is the plastic Herons that some garden centres sell, they tend to be quite territorial when feeding and if they think another bird has beaten them to it they ‘generally’ do not land..... the beauty of the tripwire is it's all but invisible so can still look natural unlike nets etc.

D.B.

 

[spandit]

Tripwire could be feasible but from what I've read, artificial herons don't work as they often feed in groups

 

[demographic]

Just get bog standard cheapo goldfish and enjoy the herons

 

[Drain Bamaged]

The plastic ones can be a waste of time if there are a lot of young birds around, they tend to gather for feeding, I am quite lucky I have a couple of Muscovy Ducks that were hand reared one winter and actually lived in the house/kitchen for the first couple of months of their lives, they are slightly confused they do not know if they are dogs or humans, the only thing they know for certain is 'they are not Ducks' and they definitely do not like Herons or Canada Geese which tends to be very handy.

D.B.

 

[spandit]

Just get bog standard cheapo goldfish and enjoy the herons

Tell that to my 6 year old who spent her pocket money on a shubunkin (and named all 6 of them)

 

[Goatboy]

A chap in my village has a mini electric fence around his pond. Don't know if it works but he's made a nice neat job of it with proper little ceramic insulators to hold the wire. And I will admit that though we've a lot of herons 'round here I've never seen one in his garden.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.