Yesterday I had 4 Herons circling around my pond and I have never seen that before. The day before I was setting at the pond and a heron came down and landed in my thick spatterdock in 7 foot of water. I think he thought it was shallow, and he sank up to his nick. He tried three times to get out but the foot high spatterdock and water was interfering with his wing flapping. He was able to fly out on the 4 attempts. By the way the spatterdock seems to be self destructing with the leaves turning brown and thinning out, much like you see in late fall and finally finished off by frost. Since I have let my pond go completely natural I have minnows, bluegill, tadpoles and frogs thick in my pond offering up lots of food for predators. Cattails of the thin and wide leaf variety have almost circled my pond with a width of 30 feet in some places and I have never see herons land in them. I only spray in front of my deck so as to have a clear view of all the wild life activity this type of pond has to offer. The birding is great.
John,
Sounds like you have the right idea with the natural approach if that works for you.
