Herons

[david and julie]

Can anybody suggest a way off stopping a greedy heron scoffing the goldfish out of my garden pond. The pond is well established and natural looking so I don't want to use a net. I have 2 cat's and an artificial Spoonbill but they make no difference.

I have read about all sorts of devices but have my doubt's about most of them.

 

[breezer]

I have read about all sorts of devices but have my doubt's about most of them.

you have answered your own question

the best way is a net, but you dont want one, you can try a "scarecrow" it shoots water out when it detects something, but it needs a hose that is on 24/7 and if you forget it will get you too

 

[david and julie]

Thanks.....Breezer

I think I will probably end up with something like you suggest.

Main problem with a net, apart from looks, is that some of the plants grow 2 or 3 feet high and are quite fragile.

Still it's early day's, someone may have another idea.(apart from a brick or a gun that is!) only joking bird lovers.

Cheers

 

[joseph77]

Hello there,

my friend has a pond and he has fixed fishing line running palleral every 12inchs accross the pond, apparently stops the herons poking there bills in or something, and they dont stand out to much. Another but harder way would be to dig the pond out to 4 foot deep, not the most practical of solutions!!

Joseph

 

[breezer]

Hello there,

my friend has a pond and he has fixed fishing line running palleral every 12inchs accross the pond, apparently stops the herons poking there bills in or something, and they dont stand out to much.
Joseph

I have also seen similar but the fishing line was way up in the air, but you need a perfetly oblong garden to do it

 

[ngater]

Something else I've seen is a PIR rigged to the oscilating unit of a fan attached to, in this case if I remember correctly, some small bells - when activated the unit started to move and the bells made a noise.

Little bit of a botch up but it seemed to work....

 

[Igorian]

Try this:

http://www.koivision.co.uk/Scarecrow.htm

 

[P_D_G]

Try putting a childs toy snake or a length of garden hose next to the pond.

(I've heard it works but haven't had to try it myself).

 

[breezer]

does the heron die of laughter?

 

[AdamW]

My parents have a fake owl with big staring eyes. The heron no longer comes, and it was amusing watching their cats when they first saw it.

A heron, I believe, swoops down from a vantage point when it is swiping fish. If you somehow block off it's view or it's approach then you will scupper the heron as it relies on surprise. This might not be any good for you, especially if your pond is in the middle of the garden! But if you work out that the heron can only be hunting from sitting on a particular part of the fence, you could work from there (although that might upset your cats)

 

[salem2000]

Asked a friend who's a member of the RSPB. He advised me to go to thier website.

Here

 

[AdamW]

That's a great link, I just found out that the birds nesting in my bedroom gable are house sparrows! Perhaps I will keep the sound file off the website and use it as an alarm when the chicks have flown the nest

It's like having a newborn baby, I get woken up from 4am onwards, every 20 minutes when the parents come back to feed the little scamps.