Heron Attack!!

I thought that I had figured out a way to discourage the heron from
visiting. I put up a fake heron. I put in a duck. I stretched fishing line
over the top of the pond and around the pond.
The heron came straight down from a nearby tree and landed next to the pond.
Then stepped through the fishing line to the pond.
So I put an electric fence around the pond with 4 wires. It came down and
stepped through the fence. It jumped a bit but didn't stop.
So I put 2 more wires on the fence. The heron came down and landed inside
the fence. The fence is about 3 feet from the pond with shrubs and rocks.
So I moved the fence right to the pond edge inside the shrubs etc. We'll see
what happens now.
The heron just came back. Both of us were in the yard by the pond with two
dogs there. It swooped over and landed on the roof of the house.
Each time it got into the pond I raced out and clapped my hands to scare it
off. It just moved off to a nearby tree or roof and waited.
It seemed to watch what I was doing.
I thought it needed a large flight path to land. I know now that it does
not. It came down almost vertically.
There seems to be a pair of them. I don't know if it is the same one each
time.
Anyone got anymore hints. Apart from getting ride of my fish. Not that I
have many left.

can you stretch electrified wires across the top of the pond? just an idea
and don't know if that would work or not.
mad
--
"Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the
Titanic who waved off the dessert cart."
Erma Bombeck

From: "TC"
Newsgroups: rec.ponds
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 02:29:24 GMT
Subject: Heron Attack!!

I thought that I had figured out a way to discourage the heron from
visiting. I put up a fake heron. I put in a duck. I stretched fishing line
over the top of the pond and around the pond.
The heron came straight down from a nearby tree and landed next to the pond.
Then stepped through the fishing line to the pond.
So I put an electric fence around the pond with 4 wires. It came down and
stepped through the fence. It jumped a bit but didn't stop.
So I put 2 more wires on the fence. The heron came down and landed inside
the fence. The fence is about 3 feet from the pond with shrubs and rocks.
So I moved the fence right to the pond edge inside the shrubs etc. We'll see
what happens now.
The heron just came back. Both of us were in the yard by the pond with two
dogs there. It swooped over and landed on the roof of the house.
Each time it got into the pond I raced out and clapped my hands to scare it
off. It just moved off to a nearby tree or roof and waited.
It seemed to watch what I was doing.
I thought it needed a large flight path to land. I know now that it does
not. It came down almost vertically.
There seems to be a pair of them. I don't know if it is the same one each
time.
Anyone got anymore hints. Apart from getting ride of my fish. Not that I
have many left.





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This is the long version of the heron hints.
Maybe there is something in here to help that you
haven't tried yet.
A long time ago one rec.ponder got the fish and game guys to come out to his
father's pond to dispatch a heron. They are the ONLY people who can do this
legally. Give them a call before you give up.
Good luck and let us know what happens.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~

So far the most effective heron foilers for rec.ponders are
1) An electric fence, try the Fido Fence sold at large pet superstores. In
current pond magazines I've noticed that the FIshock folks have come up with a
fence that lays out over the water.
http://www.fishock.com/
Fi-Shock inc.
5360 N. National Drive
Knoxville, TN 37914-6695

2) Fishing wire strung around the pond a few inches off the ground to causing
the heron frustration on where to put his feet.
3) A plastic fish, called a heron scarer, anchored on the bottom and floating
below the surface, the heron grabs for it and is scared when the fish fights
back. It also gives the resident fish time to hide.
4) Dogs who spend their daylight hours outside - only problem is black capped
night herons will feed in the middle of the night. When the dogs did the Full
Dog Alert at our house the heron waited until I opened the deck slider before
he took off.
5) Call your local Fish and Wildlife office and sob over the phone and see what
they suggest. Do not attempt to kill, maim or harm a heron without official
permission. They are protected under the Migratory Bird Act. A
HREF="http://migratorybirds.fws.gov/intrnltr/mbta/mbtandx.html"http://mig
ratorybirds.fws.gov/intrnltr/mbta/mbtandx.html/A
click on the 'H' But just because they are protected as migratory birds don't
count on your heron migrating.... some herons maintain year round colonies.
5a) If you think shooting herons is the answer or you are just channeling your
inner redneck -- don't post your name and email address on the internet stating
that fact - a fish and wildlife agent can pay you a social call.
6) Netting the pond really, really, really well..... and realizing that some
herons (green heron) can wiggle under nets.
7) A Scarecrow motion detector sprinkler. Two units used in a '90 degree
crossfire' substantially improves overall efficiency
8) A heron decoy. Large plastic fake herons that trick the real heron into
thinking your pond is occupied. Possible problem is a heron's feeding territory
in times of abundant food is only a few yards wide. And juvenile herons like to
feed in groups. Think of teenagers going to the mall. And finally, a male heron
was once spotted courting a fake heron decoy with offerings of dead goldfish
and frogs from the heron decoy owner's pond.
9) Fake alligators. Can work unless you have a year round colony of herons that
never fly south and don't know an alligator from a lazy labrador. Fake
alligators have also been known give meter readers the heebie jeebies.
10) A floating plastic snake (same caution about the meter reader).
11) Paintball warfare .... hmmm, we are not sure on this one. If owning a
feather from a protected bird of prey is a crime then knocking one off a heron
may be frowned upon. So don't knock any feathers off your heron if you splat
him with paint...
12) Lay mouse traps around on the ground....upside down!!
13) From England "The time to stop them then is before they land. They have
such large wings that sudden stops or changes of direction are out of the
question, meaning, that if the obstacle is in the air, they are unable to fly
around it. Lengths of wire (or rot-proof strong string) stretched from roof
height on the house to a high point at the rear of the garden, completely over
the
pond. The wire should be about one metre from the adjacent piece."
14) From Thomas Seminazzi "I rigged up a "heron-scare" to deter him. I wired a
bathroom vent fan to a motion sensor, and set the sensor to TEST mode so it
would go off day ornight. A got a bundle of those colorful mylar streamers
little girls put on their bike handles and attached them to the output of the
fan. The fan is hidden under my deck, but if something trips the sensor, the
streamers start
flapping all over the place...like an anemone reaching out for prey."
15) A recent addition: feed your fish sinking food and they won't be
conditioned to come to the
surface when something blurry shows up at the edge of the pond.
16) Steve connected a motion detector to a 24 volt fire alarm strobe light
using
a 24 volt transformer and set the motion detector on "TEST" so it will
work day or night.

Rec.ponders do not recommend
1) Driving your SUV through the rock garden after arriving home to find the
heron in the pond in order to scare him off.
2) Hiding in the bushes, grabbing the heron by the neck and ending up getting
lots of stitches in the ER.
3) Leaping out of the shower and running into the backyard, naked, screaming at
the heron.
4) Dropping on all fours and barking like a dog at a particularly aggressive
heron.
5) Attempting to shoot the heron, lasso the heron, skewer the heron, verbally
abuse the heron, make fun of the heron or ruffle the heron's feathers in any
manner. Refer to the Migratory Bird Act - fines and jail stays cut in on pond
dollars and pond time.

[The above suggestions have actually happened and were responsible in removing
the heron for a period of time. Rec.ponders find them lacking in dignity and
therefore do not recommend them. We must remain dignified, if only to keep our
spouses from having us committed.]



k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html

I don't think that would help. One thing that I was told and seems to be the
case is that herons are wading birds and that they do not land on water.
Nothing over the top of the pond would help if that is indeed the case. I
also would not like to put anything in that would put the fish at risk. If a
wire came down...
I heard that one commercial ponder finally fenced his pond. Presumably the
fence was right on the edge of the pond. Apparently it solved his problem.
I only used an electric fence because I already had it and it is easier to
move. Which I needed to do.
I have heard some fokes have put netting over the pond. That maybe a last
option for me. I think the netting would have to be high enough to prevent
the heron from reaching through the mesh. Of couse if the mesh was small
enough it would not be able to. And it would not be able to get the fish out
anyway. So maybe that is the way to go.

"mad" wrote in message
...
can you stretch electrified wires across the top of the pond? just an idea
and don't know if that would work or not.
mad
- 19 Different Servers! =-----

Unfortunately determined herons will land in the water and paddle around like a
duck. Not a very good version of a duck but that doesn't seem to bother them...

k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html

Oh Oh! I better get back out to the pond.
Thanks for all the help. I know a ponder in my area that gave up on fish
because of the herons. I hope to avoid that. A net seems to be the most
likely to suceed.
I've never seen any other herons on the west coast of Canada. The one
visitng us seems to be the blue heron. I gather the Black-crowned Night
Heron that comes at night would be more of a problem. Perhaps it has already
visited and I didn't see it.

"K30a" wrote in message
...

Unfortunately determined herons will land in the water and paddle around
like a
duck. Not a very good version of a duck but that doesn't seem to bother
them...

k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html

--
See my zone 8B pond:
http://community.webshots.com/album/14478479WdPMkPBPmt
http://community.webshots.com/album/40739268OAqLln
Rec.ponds FAQ: http://www.geocities.com/justinm090/faq.html
Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein... Prov 26:27

From: "TC"
Newsgroups: rec.ponds
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 02:50:46 GMT
Subject: Heron Attack!!

I don't think that would help. One thing that I was told and seems to be the
case is that herons are wading birds and that they do not land on water.
Nothing over the top of the pond would help if that is indeed the case. I
also would not like to put anything in that would put the fish at risk. If a
wire came down...

you are right, of course. i didn't think of that

I heard that one commercial ponder finally fenced his pond. Presumably the
fence was right on the edge of the pond. Apparently it solved his problem.
I only used an electric fence because I already had it and it is easier to
move. Which I needed to do.
I have heard some fokes have put netting over the pond. That maybe a last
option for me. I think the netting would have to be high enough to prevent
the heron from reaching through the mesh. Of couse if the mesh was small
enough it would not be able to. And it would not be able to get the fish out
anyway. So maybe that is the way to go.

perhaps you can place the net over the electric fence posts (without the
power on, of course), if they're high enough? just trying to brainstorm a
little bit.
mad

"mad" wrote in message
...
can you stretch electrified wires across the top of the pond? just an idea
and don't know if that would work or not.
mad
- 19 Different Servers! =-----





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Net the pond.

"TC" wrote in message news:ayf1b.16355$K44.3898@edtnps84...
I don't think that would help. One thing that I was told and seems to be
the
case is that herons are wading birds and that they do not land on water.

Herons are indeed wading birds; they don't land on water, they land on
something solid & wade into the water.

Nothing over the top of the pond would help if that is indeed the case.

Netting should help, because herons like something solid, like a deck --
not something "bouncy" like netting.

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC

Net it. That's the only thing that helped me. I lost almost fish all twice.
I doesn't look that bad, peace of mind is worth it. Joann
"TC" wrote in message news:8ef1b.16159$K44.10203@edtnps84...
I thought that I had figured out a way to discourage the heron from
visiting. I put up a fake heron. I put in a duck. I stretched fishing line
over the top of the pond and around the pond.
The heron came straight down from a nearby tree and landed next to the
pond.
Then stepped through the fishing line to the pond.
So I put an electric fence around the pond with 4 wires. It came down and
stepped through the fence. It jumped a bit but didn't stop.
So I put 2 more wires on the fence. The heron came down and landed inside
the fence. The fence is about 3 feet from the pond with shrubs and rocks.
So I moved the fence right to the pond edge inside the shrubs etc. We'll
see
what happens now.
The heron just came back. Both of us were in the yard by the pond with two
dogs there. It swooped over and landed on the roof of the house.
Each time it got into the pond I raced out and clapped my hands to scare
it
off. It just moved off to a nearby tree or roof and waited.
It seemed to watch what I was doing.
I thought it needed a large flight path to land. I know now that it does
not. It came down almost vertically.
There seems to be a pair of them. I don't know if it is the same one each
time.
Anyone got anymore hints. Apart from getting ride of my fish. Not that I
have many left.

I say amen to the net too. They completely stop the herons. I have not
lost a fish to them in 4 years now. Also, the netting is not unsightly at
all.

--
Jim and Sara Humphries, Victoria, BC
"FBCS" wrote in message
...
Net it. That's the only thing that helped me. I lost almost fish all
twice.
I doesn't look that bad, peace of mind is worth it. Joann
"TC" wrote in message news:8ef1b.16159$K44.10203@edtnps84...
I thought that I had figured out a way to discourage the heron from
visiting. I put up a fake heron. I put in a duck. I stretched fishing
line
over the top of the pond and around the pond.
The heron came straight down from a nearby tree and landed next to the
pond.
Then stepped through the fishing line to the pond.
So I put an electric fence around the pond with 4 wires. It came down
and
stepped through the fence. It jumped a bit but didn't stop.
So I put 2 more wires on the fence. The heron came down and landed
inside
the fence. The fence is about 3 feet from the pond with shrubs and
rocks.
So I moved the fence right to the pond edge inside the shrubs etc. We'll
see
what happens now.
The heron just came back. Both of us were in the yard by the pond with
two
dogs there. It swooped over and landed on the roof of the house.
Each time it got into the pond I raced out and clapped my hands to scare
it
off. It just moved off to a nearby tree or roof and waited.
It seemed to watch what I was doing.
I thought it needed a large flight path to land. I know now that it does
not. It came down almost vertically.
There seems to be a pair of them. I don't know if it is the same one
each
time.
Anyone got anymore hints. Apart from getting ride of my fish. Not that I
have many left.