er..not your usual suburban garden visitor

[Rooster2312]

Hi all,

This is the photo of the heron that was spotted last month in my parents garden after plucking our family goldfish pets from the pond. The fish have been growing happily for a good number of years and are a good size. Last year or the year before, it was discovered that a heron had been helping himself to the fish early in the morning. This caused a lot of upset as they are valued pets with names. A protective wire mesh was put in place over the pond along with our pond protector 'Cedric' a life-size plastic heron, who we thought would scare the heron off in a territorial kind of way.

There had been no more attacks until last month when this photo was taken of the culprit right before our eyes! The day before the attack,my dad had replaced part of the old mesh covering with a new, more aesthetic framework covered with chicken wire sized aluminium covering. Since it covered most of the pond, and there had not been an attack for some time, it was felt that there was little chance of the fish being in any danger. How wrong !! The next morning there was a scattering of long grey feathers around the pond area which had been lost due to the heron's long neck prodding through the spaces in the wire mesh. It was discovered later that there had only been one lost this time but some of the others still have trauma scars on their bodies from the heron's beak. This attack not surprisingly left the poor fish psychologically traumatized for a while too. They used to be so tame that you could feed them by hand but now they prefer the darker waters hiding amongst the pond plantlife. The pond now has a double cross-layer of wire, so fingers crossed, we shall be able to keep the poor fish safe.

Here is the heron http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g4...312/jon015.jpg

Lindi (p.s. Cedric has now been made redundant!)

[Pigeonpal2002]

Hi Lindi,

I'm sorry that the fish have become an easy target for this heron but it sounds like your parents have taken appropriate measure now to keep them safer. Their garden is GORGEOUS!...simply immaculate and just beautiful

I didn't know you had great blue herons in Scotland....I'm not up on what species reside in other countries for the most part

Great photo of the offender, hopefully your parents precautions will deter this guy from getting more of the poor goldfish.

[mr squeaks]

That is one beautiful and determined HERON!

I hope your fish will be protected now. How terrifying for them!

Lovely garden!

Good Luck!

[Lady Tarheel]

Lindi, hope your parents' reinforcements work now. Have to say though, that is a beautiful heron. I always try to mention to anyone when there is some discussion about herons to stay a good distance from them. They can lash out, suddenly, toward you and usually go for the eyes.

The garden is lovely.

[Reti]

Those are some lucky fish. I thought we were the only people to love our fish and name them and burry them in the pet cemetery when they passed.
Mr. Heron is quite handsome. We have tons of white ones around here, love their babies.

Thanks for the pic.

Reti

[TerriB]

They are magnificent birds, but you don't want them eating your pets. A friend of mine had a problem with herons going after his koi. He put a wire fence (too high for the herons to step over) around the perimeter of the pond. They are evidently reluctant to land in such a narrow space and it's worked for several years. Just a suggestion.

[Trees Gray]

I'm so sorry to hear this unwanted visitor was making a meal out of your pet fish.

He has got to be one HUNGRY bird to go to all that trouble.

It sounds like the fish are safely secured and that he knows he had better go somewhere else for breakfast.

[kittypaws]

My partner Colin calls herons Jack - Jack Heron - we have grey herons here and as I live near the River Thames and the London Wetlands Centre ( all within 5 minutes walking distance) we get loads of herons.

I weekly feed the ducks, geese and swans at a local nature reserve and sometimes a heron would fly over for some bread. Well I got to taking a tin of canned fish with me now and without fail I would get a heron fly over, eat the fish and fly back to its nest where you could see it feed its baby. Well yesterday, Jack Heron flew over, followed by Junior ( with his little mohican hair do) who began squawking big time for food. So it was lovely to get really close ( 5 foot away I guess) from these lovely birds and I was glad to see Junior was growing big and strong from a feast of brown bread, pilchards, sardine or mackerel.

But yes I know you have to be careful of those beaks!!

The crows give them a hard time too!!

Tania xx

[JGregg]

Here's a link with pictures of Grey Herons (Ardea cinerea).

http://www.arthurgrosset.com/europeb...y%20heron.html

[Pete Jasinski]

Have you tried one of these? http://www.gemplers.com/a/shop/produ...20733109547927
I've been reading up on them ever since I saw one in a local shopping malls lake, it seems to work as there were geese everywhere else but around that particular lake.

[Pigeonpal2002]

Thanks JGregg and Tania...the grey herons in the UK look nearly identical to the great blue herons we have in North America and as per JGregg's link. I told you guys I'm not up on my overseas birds and which ones reside where