Heron Strikes here......

Well it's the morning after.....we are quite lucky the only one who was
eaten (he/she probably does not feel lucky) is the smaller of the two Calico
Fantails.

Question: The five remaining are staying low......will they start swimming
about like before or are they traumatized for life now?? The two 3 inch
Butterfly Koi were so happy and active zipping around all over......now they
all seem to just hang down near the bottom.

Lisa

"Steve and Lisa" wrote in message ...
Well it's the morning after.....we are quite lucky the only one who was
eaten (he/she probably does not feel lucky) is the smaller of the two Calico
Fantails.

Question: The five remaining are staying low......will they start swimming
about like before or are they traumatized for life now?? The two 3 inch
Butterfly Koi were so happy and active zipping around all over......now they
all seem to just hang down near the bottom.

The only time we've actually seen a heron at our pond (~2 years back,
IIRC), we saw *no* fish at all for about two days. We thought he'd
eaten the lot. Then they started to show up again -- fortunately,
that year we had an extensive water hyac patch, and I think that's
where they all hid. In the end, we think he may have gotten one or
two of the comets, but none that we would specifically recognize as
missing. The survivors recovered from their fright in about a week.

I happened to have a bunch of scraps of 4" black ABS pipe, so I tossed
those in to provide hiding places. Then just the other weekend, we
found and bought a thing called a "Heron Scarem". It's a styrofoam
pyramid with mirror decals on it, that you float in the middle of the
pond. Supposedly, the herons don't like the reflections that come off
it.

Our pond is too enclosed by tree and house to be very attractive to
herons -- I think they prefer open spaces.

-- Kizhé

nothing frightens a hungry heron for long. there is no such thing as a too enclosed
space for herons to fish. lots of people are amazed to find em standing right
outside their windows. trees are where herons roost, so trees are ideal for them.
the only way to keep em out FOR SURE is netting. they didnt spend millions of years
evolving to deal with netting. Ingrid


I happened to have a bunch of scraps of 4" black ABS pipe, so I tossed
those in to provide hiding places. Then just the other weekend, we
found and bought a thing called a "Heron Scarem". It's a styrofoam
pyramid with mirror decals on it, that you float in the middle of the
pond. Supposedly, the herons don't like the reflections that come off
it.

Our pond is too enclosed by tree and house to be very attractive to
herons -- I think they prefer open spaces.


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We had a heron attack about a week ago. Gradually, the survivors have
recovered and are returning to their normal behavior of coming up to
check me out when I approach, and they have started eating again.
Also, I've noticed that they are mating, so maybe I'll get some fry to
replace the fish that the heron had for lunch.
Gary