"Benign Vanilla" wrote in message
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"~ Windsong ~" P@P wrote in message
...
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I think Kathy is just saying there are options that work. For example, by
hooting, hollering, running, screaming, flapping my arms technique (patent
pending) has worked very well.

## So you stand outside or have someone stand outside from sunup to
sundown? We can't afford to pay someone to stay out there guarding our
ponds 7 days a week. In summer we often go away for weekends.

No fish loss from Heron so far. Your Heron
and Kingfishers may be more persistent then mine. I have many ponds in
yards
around me, so maybe they just other, quieter sources of food. Either way,
my
solution has so far...worked very well.
snip

## See above. We can't afford to hire a guard and we're not always home.
When we are, we are not at the windows watching for fish predators. I
would run out doing the screaming and flapping, with the 3 dogs no less - I
wrote about it here several years ago. At first it worked. They'd stay
away for a few days. Then, after awhile, a few weeks maybe, the herons
would fly into nearby trees until I went back inside. Within 15 minutes
they were fishing again. Yes, they were persistent. We often saw one
fishing in the ponds while another was up in a nearby tree. Or one was
behind the house fishing the kiddy pools. On one occasion there were three
in our yard.

## How can they make an educated choice without hearing form those who
tried
these other methods and none worked long-term and why? Do you realize
some
people are blaming herons for taking fish when the problem is snakes or
frogs? We need to ask them if these predators are also in their pond.
I
don't recall anyone asking them that question. Some people never see a
snake but suddenly find a shed skin near their pond. We can't assume
every
missing fish ended up dinner for some heron.
snip

True that. Last year, one of our Koi disappeared, plants knocked over and
a
very racoon like scat was found on the edge of the pond. Dern Racoons. My
neighbor even mentioned to me he saw a racoon walking down the street
towards my house. He must have heard about the buffet. My fish will swim
into your hand if you sit there, so they are certainly dinner options for
animals.

## Because of the dogs raccoons don't come into our yard. We have them as
well as deer, possums, skunks, red and blue fox, huge flocks of turkeys,
hawks......
--
Carol.... the frugal ponder...
"Eat Right, Exercise, Die Anyway."
~~~~~~~ }((((((o
http://www.heartoftn.net/users/windsong/index.html
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