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01-08-2020, 10:17 PM
1

Heron

We've had another visitation by 'our' heron today.
We watched it carefully for about half-an-hour before it flew away, and Marge very cleverly managed to get some good photographs from our bedroom.

It alights in our garden from time to time, and slowly and carefully makes its way to our small pond. There are some goldfish in there, but how it sees them I don't know because they hide under the duckweed.

Nevertheless, it stands on the side of the pond and, from time to time, tries to grab something with its beak. Fortunately, it can't get any closer to the water because of the net over the pond.

One fine day, one of our cats will be about at the same time and it will be interesting to see who is more scared of whom!


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01-08-2020, 10:31 PM
2

Re: Heron

Those are good shots JB.

When I still had the pond a heron would quite often sit on the garage eyeing up the pond even though there were no fish in it.
Very occasionally a heron sits on garage roof now. I sort of wondered if it was the same one but dissed that as there's always a few about with the stream being opposite.
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01-08-2020, 10:55 PM
3

Re: Heron

Originally Posted by Pesta ->
Those are good shots JB.

When I still had the pond a heron would quite often sit on the garage eyeing up the pond even though there were no fish in it.
Very occasionally a heron sits on garage roof now. I sort of wondered if it was the same one but dissed that as there's always a few about with the stream being opposite.
Good point.
Yes, it could well be that the heron has no idea that there are fish in there. Perhaps they just like water.

Come to think of it, I have a feeling that on an earlier visit it may have tried to step into the water. I never saw that, but there are bits of dead duckweed hanging from the net which may have been picked up if it had stepped on it.

I keep mentioning 'the heron', though there could be more than one which visits. They all look the same to me.

Incidentally, the nearest heron habitat to us is nowhere as near as your stream is to you, being about half-a-mile away as the crow (or heron) flies.
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01-08-2020, 10:58 PM
4

Re: Heron

Will Marge be doing any Heron pictures from those great shots she managed to achieve?
BTW I forgot to say, I love the one where it seems to looking in at the window
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01-08-2020, 11:05 PM
5

Re: Heron

Originally Posted by Pesta ->
Will Marge be doing any Heron pictures from those great shots she managed to achieve?
BTW I forgot to say, I love the one where it seems to looking in at the window
I asked her and received a non-committal "you never know"!

Actually, she thinks it might have been looking at its reflection in the window.
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01-08-2020, 11:50 PM
6

Re: Heron

Do hope your fish are safe, JBR.

A Heron (or maybe different ones), though probably only the one, ate all our fish, then once those were gone started on the newts. We thought he/she had eaten all, but no, we still have lots of newts, but we never got any more fish. The pond leaks now.
The pond was strung, but the stringing was removed to clean the pond of weed & the Heron took full advantage, coming very early before I was up. I did get a pic though through the living room window, before it flew off.


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01-08-2020, 11:57 PM
7

Re: Heron

Originally Posted by Tiffany ->
Do hope your fish are safe, JBR.

A Heron (or maybe different ones), though probably only the one, ate all our fish, then once those were gone started on the newts. We thought he/she had eaten all, but no, we still have lots of newts, but we never got any more fish. The pond leaks now.
The pond was strung, but the stringing was removed to clean the pond of weed & the Heron took full advantage, coming very early before I was up. I did get a pic though through the living room window, before it flew off.
Nice picture. I assume it's standing on your greenhouse roof.

In future, I'd recommend a net. They are strong enough to resist interlopers, or at least ours has been.

I found that if I inserted some screws all the way around the pond wall, I could hang the net on those and pull it quite tight. It is also quite easy to remove if necessary, but I wouldn't leave it off in my absence for obvious reasons!
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02-08-2020, 12:53 AM
8

Re: Heron

The fish were very old, as the stringing has stopped Herons getting at them before, but with the strings removed open house. We didn't bother to re string once the fish were gone. The pond is a wildlife haven now.
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02-08-2020, 11:38 AM
9

Re: Heron

Originally Posted by Tiffany ->
The fish were very old, as the stringing has stopped Herons getting at them before, but with the strings removed open house. We didn't bother to re string once the fish were gone. The pond is a wildlife haven now.
A wildlife pond can be equally interesting. We have frogs too, though nothing really interesting like newts. Every spring, masses of frogspawn; I can't believe where it all comes from!
Then the tadpoles; thousands of them. Then they've all gone. I can only assume that the fish eat them.
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02-08-2020, 04:21 PM
10

Re: Heron

Originally Posted by JBR ->
A wildlife pond can be equally interesting. We have frogs too, though nothing really interesting like newts. Every spring, masses of frogspawn; I can't believe where it all comes from!
Then the tadpoles; thousands of them. Then they've all gone. I can only assume that the fish eat them.
We haven't any frogs so we assumed the Heron got those before they spawned so no tadpoles to come back once they were frogs. Haven't had frogs since anyway, but the newts are numerous. Only the common ones, but great to see.
 
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