Hi,

In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our garden pond to
be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically we had
fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them harvesting our fish. A
complete eyesore.

Any ideas/suggestions for a less visually intrusive method for making the
pond unattractive to herons (and for that matter wild ducks)?

I see here http://www.wildwoodsonline.co.uk/aca...eterrents.html
that there are quite a few commercial options none of which have any great
aesthetic appeal.

I am thinking that a grid of taut fishing line on 1 foot-ish centres will
unobtrusively "cut the mustard". Is this likely to be effective?

Any other suggestions?

David

In uk.rec.gardening vortex2 wrote:
Hi,

In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our garden pond to
be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically we had
fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them harvesting our fish. A
complete eyesore.

Any ideas/suggestions for a less visually intrusive method for making the
pond unattractive to herons (and for that matter wild ducks)?

I see here http://www.wildwoodsonline.co.uk/aca...eterrents.html
that there are quite a few commercial options none of which have any great
aesthetic appeal.

I am thinking that a grid of taut fishing line on 1 foot-ish centres will
unobtrusively "cut the mustard". Is this likely to be effective?

We have just finished (it took about a year!) a pond which is a very
similar size to yours and we too have lots of local herons, we've lost
fish to them before.

We were going to go the "fishing line" way but think we now have a
better/easier solution. While laying the slabs around the pond I
embedded lengths of galvanised wire (wire coat hangers straightened
would be fine) in the gaps between the slabs. At the end where the
wire pokes out over the pond these wires are bent into a hook. We now
have some very lightweight bird-cage netting stretched across the pond
using the hooks, it's very nearly invisible and can be removed and
replaced very easily so if we want an 'unadorned' pond while we sit
there it's easy enough to take it off.

--
Chris Green

In uk.d-i-y, vortex2 wrote:
In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our garden pond to
be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically we had
fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them harvesting our fish. A
complete eyesore.

This may not help but... when we moved into this house there was a 3m^2
pond which soon lost all its fish to the herons. So we built an
additional 35m^2 pond. The herons visit daily, but get no fish, or not
enough to matter: we started off with twenty golden rudd in there and we
now have many hundreds. I suppose the species might make a difference
but I've always put it down to the depth: one metre in the middle, so
that the fish can lurk down there out of reach.

The herons do get frogs, though.

--
Mike Barnes

In article ,
vortex2 wrote:
Hi,

In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our
garden pond to be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically
we had fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them
harvesting our fish. A complete eyesore.

Any ideas/suggestions for a less visually intrusive method for
making the pond unattractive to herons (and for that matter wild
ducks)?

You can buy dummy herons to stand by the side of the
pool and 'claim' the territory. It works.

I was working, looking out of an upstairs window one
day, and noticed that next door had bought a rather
nice heron statue, standing just by their fishpool.
In fact it was a real heron which had just taken all
the 19 fish in there, some of them quite large.

--
Tony Williams.

On May 2, 9:45 am, "vortex2"
wrote:
Hi,

In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our garden pond to
be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically we had
fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them harvesting our fish. A
complete eyesore.

Any ideas/suggestions for a less visually intrusive method for making the
pond unattractive to herons (and for that matter wild ducks)?

I see herehttp://www.wildwoodsonline.co.uk/acatalog/Heron_Deterrents.html
that there are quite a few commercial options none of which have any great
aesthetic appeal.

I am thinking that a grid of taut fishing line on 1 foot-ish centres will
unobtrusively "cut the mustard". Is this likely to be effective?

Any other suggestions?

David

After having the same problem, I went to rec.ponds and found all sorts
of advice, some good, some not so good... But I would recommend the
post at
http://preview.tinyurl.com/34x6jc
for some advice and a good laugh.

We put a couple of lengths of heavy, arched clay ridge tile in the
pond for the fish to hide under. The fish are still there and have
been joined for another year by their seasonal little mates, the
newts.

David

On Wed, 2 May 2007 09:45:07 +0100, vortex2 wrote:

Hi,

In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our garden pond to
be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically we had
fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them harvesting our fish. A
complete eyesore.

Any ideas/suggestions for a less visually intrusive method for making the
pond unattractive to herons (and for that matter wild ducks)?

I see here http://www.wildwoodsonline.co.uk/aca...eterrents.html
that there are quite a few commercial options none of which have any great
aesthetic appeal.

I am thinking that a grid of taut fishing line on 1 foot-ish centres will
unobtrusively "cut the mustard". Is this likely to be effective?

Any other suggestions?

We had our pond uncovered for 5/6 years and never had any troubles. We live
right in the heart of Broadland, so herons abound! We had one start to pay
an occasional visit three or four years back, although I think we always
managed to startle it as I wasn't aware of losing any fish. That prompted
me into making a cumbersome and unsightly timber frame with black netting
stretched over.

That has just finally collapsed, and reading up for heron protection, it
seems they land and walk upto the pond. Putting stakes into the ground
about a foot or so away from the edge and running a line around the top of
the stakes will stop them approaching the pond.

The various kits sold for the purpose seem to cost far more than the
contents warrant - I used a dozen black-coated metal plant stakes, 21" or
so long, at £1.25 each. I also settled on a single thread of green
polypropylene garden twine about 12 to 15" off the ground, rather than
fishing line. It's quite easily visible to humans and pets alike, and
doesn't look at all out of place IMO.

The other thing which is well worth doing, if you have sufficient depth
(3ft or so in centre) is to place a small plinth in the centre of the pond.
Mine is made from black plastic, about 2'6" square and supported on a
simple frame made from waste-pipe fittings. This leaves a space of about 6"
or so under which the fish can retreat if they feel threatened. I just
stick a water lily or two in containers on top of the plastic sheet.

--
the dot wanderer at tesco dot net

vortex2 wrote:
Hi,

In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our garden
pond to be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically we
had fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them harvesting our
fish. A complete eyesore.

Any ideas/suggestions for a less visually intrusive method for making
the pond unattractive to herons (and for that matter wild ducks)?

Pop into re.ponds.moderated and ask I think ~jan uses some sort of water jet
thing using a sensor. Works for cats too
--
ßôyþëtë
London, UK

"vortex2" wrote in message
.. .
Hi,

In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our garden pond
to be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically we had
fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them harvesting our fish. A
complete eyesore.

Any ideas/suggestions for a less visually intrusive method for making the
pond unattractive to herons (and for that matter wild ducks)?

Herons are very territorial, so a dummy heron at the pond side works well.

Colin Bignell

In message , vortex2
writes
Hi,

In the next couple of weeks we are seriously "upgrading" our garden pond to
be approx 15m^2 (is/was about 3 m^2).

Local herons seem to feed well from garden ponds, so historically we had
fruit cage netting covering ours to prevent them harvesting our fish. A
complete eyesore.

Any ideas/suggestions for a less visually intrusive method for making the
pond unattractive to herons (and for that matter wild ducks)?

I see here http://www.wildwoodsonline.co.uk/aca...eterrents.html
that there are quite a few commercial options none of which have any great
aesthetic appeal.

I am thinking that a grid of taut fishing line on 1 foot-ish centres will
unobtrusively "cut the mustard". Is this likely to be effective?

Any other suggestions?

David


I have a 25m2 pond, and use fishing line round the edge and a few stands
across where I can.
The pond is also deep (32"), and vertical sided.
The real saviour for the fish though seems to be lots of good hiding
places, I have lots (a few dozen) paving slabs as shelves, supported on
with piles of bricks or on-end clay pipes. Two tiers in many places,
2'x2' slabs on 12" long pipes, and a top layer of 18"x18" slabs on
varying stacks of bricks.
I've seen the local heron around occasionally, but I don't think I've
lost many fish when the fishing line defence is in place.
Garden backs onto open fields and woodland, and I'm near the River, so
all good (bad?) potential heron country.



--
steve

On 2 May, 10:49, Tony Williams wrote:
I was working, looking out of an upstairs window one
day, and noticed that next door had bought a rather
nice heron statue, standing just by their fishpool.
In fact it was a real heron which had just taken all
the 19 fish in there, some of them quite large.

Same here happened yesterday! I was taking pictures of the kids
playing outside and suddenly one of the kids yelled pointing his
finger at the roof opposite our street. This huge heron stood there. I
first thought that it wasn't real, but it was. It later plundged into
the garden below and disappeared. We are 1 1/4 mile from Manchester
city centre. It's really reassuring seeing herons around here which
tells us that the environment must be getting just right for them and
therefore for us. Unless off course there was some nice koy carps in
the pond below ...

http://cjoint.com/?fcvZkZCm1F

La Puce wrote:
On 2 May, 10:49, Tony Williams wrote:
I was working, looking out of an upstairs window one
day, and noticed that next door had bought a rather
nice heron statue, standing just by their fishpool.
In fact it was a real heron which had just taken all
the 19 fish in there, some of them quite large.

Same here happened yesterday! I was taking pictures of the kids
playing outside and suddenly one of the kids yelled pointing his
finger at the roof opposite our street. This huge heron stood there. I
first thought that it wasn't real, but it was. It later plundged into
the garden below and disappeared. We are 1 1/4 mile from Manchester
city centre. It's really reassuring seeing herons around here which
tells us that the environment must be getting just right for them and
therefore for us. Unless off course there was some nice koy carps in
the pond below ...

http://cjoint.com/?fcvZkZCm1F

That's scarey!!
--
ßôyþëtë
London, UK

On 2 May, 21:17, "BoyPete" wrote:
That's scarey!!

You woose. We get very large owls here too, because of the old houses
and poorly maintained roof. Once one landed on our bedroom bay window
roof and the landing was so heavy and noisy we rushed out thinking our
chimney had either collapsed or a burglar was up there only to find
this owl staring at us for a few second and whooosh ... flew away
quietly.

In message . com, La
Puce writes
On 2 May, 10:49, Tony Williams wrote:
I was working, looking out of an upstairs window one
day, and noticed that next door had bought a rather
nice heron statue, standing just by their fishpool.
In fact it was a real heron which had just taken all
the 19 fish in there, some of them quite large.

Same here happened yesterday! I was taking pictures of the kids
playing outside and suddenly one of the kids yelled pointing his
finger at the roof opposite our street. This huge heron stood there. I
first thought that it wasn't real, but it was. It later plundged into
the garden below and disappeared. We are 1 1/4 mile from Manchester
city centre. It's really reassuring seeing herons around here which
tells us that the environment must be getting just right for them and
therefore for us. Unless off course there was some nice koy carps in
the pond below ...


Yes, I have a small ornamental pond with Koi in

.... and it's been raided

How does the bloody bird actually find this little puddle of water ?

I cover it with a plastic coated wire mesh now


--
geoff

On 2007-05-03 00:42:18 +0100, raden said:

In message . com, La
Puce writes
On 2 May, 10:49, Tony Williams wrote:
I was working, looking out of an upstairs window one
day, and noticed that next door had bought a rather
nice heron statue, standing just by their fishpool.
In fact it was a real heron which had just taken all
the 19 fish in there, some of them quite large.

Same here happened yesterday! I was taking pictures of the kids
playing outside and suddenly one of the kids yelled pointing his
finger at the roof opposite our street. This huge heron stood there. I
first thought that it wasn't real, but it was. It later plundged into
the garden below and disappeared. We are 1 1/4 mile from Manchester
city centre. It's really reassuring seeing herons around here which
tells us that the environment must be getting just right for them and
therefore for us. Unless off course there was some nice koy carps in
the pond below ...


Yes, I have a small ornamental pond with Koi in

... and it's been raided

How does the bloody bird actually find this little puddle of water ?

By sound..... it has a heron aid.......

On 2 May 2007 12:56:42 -0700, La Puce wrote:

On 2 May, 10:49, Tony Williams wrote:
I was working, looking out of an upstairs window one
day, and noticed that next door had bought a rather
nice heron statue, standing just by their fishpool.
In fact it was a real heron which had just taken all
the 19 fish in there, some of them quite large.

Same here happened yesterday! I was taking pictures of the kids
playing outside and suddenly one of the kids yelled pointing his
finger at the roof opposite our street. This huge heron stood there. I
first thought that it wasn't real, but it was. It later plundged into
the garden below and disappeared. We are 1 1/4 mile from Manchester
city centre. It's really reassuring seeing herons around here which
tells us that the environment must be getting just right for them and
therefore for us. Unless off course there was some nice koy carps in
the pond below ...

http://cjoint.com/?fcvZkZCm1F

There will be two less of them nicking the fish in the Manchester
area:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...er/6606375.stm.

The Thomson Fly Boeing 757 had just left Manchester Airport en route
to Lanzarote when the herons were sucked into the starboard engine.

On 3 May, 10:13, mike wrote:
There will be two less of them nicking the fish in the Manchester
area:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...er/6606375.stm.
The Thomson Fly Boeing 757 had just left Manchester Airport en route
to Lanzarote when the herons were sucked into the starboard engine.

Oww... A friend lives by the river Dee near Chester, literally her
feet in the river (but half her house under water in winter ...). She
has lots of herons around because there's a fish farm less than a mile
away. The fish farm are alowed to kill the herons going to their farm
and my friend got one to eat (she eats road kills too). She said it
was very tender but a bit fishy ... yurk