"~ Windsong ~" P@P wrote in message
...
snip
Here's a potentially radical idea. How about tolerating the birds and
designing a way for them to gravitate towards the far more replaceable
fish (and less emotionally attached) than the expensive koi? The best
design I've seen so far is a deep, vertically flat sided pond fed by a
long, shallow stream/waterfall at a public koi pond.

$$ Oh that would be lovely if we were rich. :-) Have you any idea what
something like that would cost? If we had that kind of money we could
call
in some pond builders and redo both ponds. In fact replace them with one
huge 3 to 4,000 gallon pond. But where would I put the plants then if
there
are no shelves? How would this keep the (bullfrogs, snakes, snappers)
King
Fishers out of the steep sided pond? Steep sided plants ponds are not
attractive or natural looking.

I beg your pardon. The near edge of my pond goes vertical to the bottom,
http://www.darofamily.com/jeff/files...e/p1010064.jpg. And I think
it's perty damn nice pond.

The stream served a second purpose too. It was planted with milfoil and
other plants, so it acted as a vegetative filter. The whole stream had
pretty good daylight exposure for plant growth while the actual pond was
partially shaded. Actually, the only foreign species in the pond was a
muskrat that kept trying to build its nest in the pump house. Watching
the
herons catch the fish in the stream added a nice natural touch I
thought.

$$ How did you keep the fish in the stream? And what about those of us
who
don't have $10,000+ to call in pond builders or don't have the space for
huge streams?

I built my stream, which is about 5-6 feet long, with scraps of liner.


--
BV
Webporgmaster of iheartmypond.com
http://www.iheartmypond.com
I'll be leaning on the bus stop post.