I had heard of our native herons visiting in town fish ponds but didn't believe that one could fit between the houses to get to our pond. They are about a meter tall and have a 2 meter or more wing span. Well I was wrong. This pretty guy had a snack at our pond. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture, because about that time my dog decided to have a coughing fit and needed to be put outside. Fortunate for the fish though. The electric fencing was no deterant for the heron. Guess he knew not to touch it. Hope the racoons and possums don't get that smart or its by-by fish. Great Blue on garage looking down at pond ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Great Blue Heron on roof next door ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) great blue heron ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )[/b]
You did a great job in capturing the heron Jewell. He's a handsome fellow isn't he but that bill of his is a killer. People say that it can punch holes in metal so I'm glad I'm not on the receiving end of it. I hope you didn't lose too many of your fish to him and that your dog coughing has made him think twice about a return snack.
Look at that bird! Such nice fotos. Too bad your dog had that coughing spell, but these lovely fotos are certainaly good ones. The problem is the same here. these blue herons come right into town and deplete the ponds of goldfish, newts and frogs. Blue herons here are almost as numerous as sparrows, so people buy blue heron decoys to place beside their ponds....and wire covers especially made to go over their ponds. They can be a costly pest in people's gardens...but it wasn't too awfully long ago that the Blue Heron population got so low that they were almost extinct. After an investigation it was discovered that most of the farmers were over-using certain chemicals on their land and it was seeping into the canals (which are everywhere) and the fish, salamanders and most of all the frogs were becoming infected. So, the herons would eat these animals and get sick and die themselves...but what happened finally was that the pesticides actually killed off the wildlife in the canals and the herons began dying in vast numbers. It was a very serious environmental problem here, as the blue herons have a very important place in the chain of life in this country. They are back now and one nesting place is near my allotment complex...and there will be a camera set up to watch them on that bird-watching link that I posted last week.
Wow Jewell, great photos!! I have heron pictures but I never get that close. If the pond has frogs the heron will be back. Jerry
Jerry, I don't believe I've ever been quite so close before this either. DB and Eileen thanks for the nice comments. Hopefully he won't be back, but I will probably run an extra wire or two to help dissuade him from feasting at my pond. The baby gold fish finally have some size to them after the raccoons cleaned me out a few years ago. Wow Sjoerd, sounds like the herons have had a time of it where you live. They are real common here also and fly over often and are seen around the lakes and sound. Not quite as common as sparrows, but who knows they may get that way. We still have a lot of wild land for them to hang around in. I'll have to see what a heron decoy looks like. We have a large rookery about 15 miles from here in protected land on the Nisqually Delta. They nest in 60 foot (20 meter)trees. The large number of herons in such tall trees seems surreal to me.
Around here they are not super common in the gardens but when they find one that they like, it can be very hard to get them to leave until they eat everything in the pond. It's illegal to harm them in any way or catch/release them and they aren't concerned with decoys. Some people have gone to great lengths to make flapping devices that are motion detected so when the bird comes near the pond, the thing goes off. I don't know how effective they are.
Fantastic photos! I can't say I've ever seem a Heron land on a roof, but then around here there is a huge lake for them to feed from. I usually only see them flying by or perched in the river. I had no idea they were garden pests!
For someone that can do so much damage... they sure are pretty! Great photos... and good luck with keeping them away from your fishies.
Jewell, those are great close-ups of the heron! We have a big blue that fishes our pond (actually a stock tank, but since we aren't running stock, I call it a pond). We can't get near enough to get a good photo, though. Occasionally big blue will perch at the top of an ashe juniper tree and just sit there for the longest time. Would stretching chicken wire across your pond deter the heron and his buddies, the racoons from getting your fish?
i love seeing those birds, they are a sight to see!...more in the country side but you do get to see them in the city occasionally....the suburb people have a fit when the 'raid' their ponds....i just chuckle.....they just see food......
Daisybeans, I'd never heard of them being garden pests, but they are certainly big enough to pose quite a problem if they stuck around. Netty and Cherylad, I am learning about what they can do to :-? marlingardener, I had just about given up on having a fish pond a few years ago when the possums and raccoon had turned the pond into a mucky, stinky mess. :'( They had totally killed everything, even the water bugs. I was thinking of filling it with bark and blueberries and forgetting about the pond. Then I figured out a way to run electricity for an old electric fencer. No type of fencing had worked for the size of raccoons we have here. They'd rip out the stakes, or sit on the fencing, or manage to climb under the fine chicken wire. I finally got out an old electric fencer I had had for goats and ran two short lines around the pond. It has worked like a charm the last few years. It isn't very powerful, but the light shock it gives has made it possible to have fish and plants in the pond again and discourages the bigger critters, but lets the birds drink and bathe. (If only my one dumb dog would figure out not to go up and stick her nose on it...she always has to check to see if it is on ) I do have three other very small ponds for critter water also, but this is the only one with fish. The others have dragon fly larva (for mosquito control) and plants only. If I have to I suppose I could run a few wires across the top of the pond like the fisheries have to do. I am hoping I won't have to. I have one end of the pond where wildlife can drink from and they keep a path cleared of plants in that area. It is nice to provide water for the wildlife that has had to move back into the city, since all the surrounding areas have been built up so much.
Dragon fly larva? This is something you purchase Jewell? Since my ponds are small I aerate the water with pumps and that keeps the mosquito population discouraged from taking up residence but I don't start the pumps till late spring. Dragonflies would be nice. Jerry
Sorry, I didn't purchase the dragon fly larva. They just seem to find their way to the all the ponds. I used to try feeder gold fish for the little ponds, but discovered the larva were eating the little fish as well as the mosiquito larva. Dragon fly larva spend up to four years in this stage (only one season as dragon flies). Here is an interesting article against introducing foreign dragon flies into your environment. http://www.fsht.org/dragonfly.html Makes sense to me and with still water dragon flies come naturally. One local source for dragon fly larva might be bait shops. Dragonfly larvae are called hellgrammites and are very popular as fish bait. You can check local bait stores for them. If you are in the region of this distributor you might look into what they have. http://www.dicksmithslivebait.com/livebait.htm
