I have some blue herons (NOT great Blue Herons, small ones) that keep coming around and eating my new fish.

What can I do about them? They're VERY wary and opening the door is enough to scare them off, but I don't want to be tied to back door forever...

What can I do about them?

Joe, they are federally protected so I edited one sentence out of your post. You don't need a knock on the door. That's worse than herons. Hope you don't mind the edit.

Dave

I don't know how large the pond is but Cecil has somewhat whipped them with fishing line tied to stakes and wrapped around the waters edge. They don't seem to want to cross it.

Yes, you can put wooden stakes up around your pond and run brightly colored braided fishing line fron stake to state. I would run a couple of strands. The don't land in the water and need to wade in to do their damage. If you make the strands high enough they can't step over, but low enough they can't crawl under, you are in business. Or you could put up an electric fence. One contact with some juice will definitely discourage them. You can also train a dog to run them off.

Thanks Dave...

Man, I'm not too thrilled about that solution at all... UGLY!

I'll wait for some others...

Thanks for the replies!

Joe,

I know it won't help you this year, but a purple martin house could possibly do the trick.

I was thinking about other natural enemies of the herons, and all I can think of are alligators, snakes, and hawks. Too bad you can't get the above in mechanical versions. All they would have to do would be to move just a little, and the herons would panic. Or set up something to automatically open your back door every 30 minutes.

Joe, I built a deer blind next to one of mine. Get a book and sit back and wait. It's gotta beat TV.

I dont think the fishing line needs to be visible. Take the finest invisible fishing line you can find. Barely visible to you, but very visible to them...

that is the best natural solution, cross it 15' above water and you can get rid of Kingfisher as well.

Along the shore line, it will discourage herons and geese.

Works well around here anyway! good luck!

M Paris is right. Those birds have EXCELLENT eyesight, and about #6 or #8 test mono between small (but sturdy) stakes will do. You can buy the million yard rolls for nuthin' down at Wallyworld. The good part is, it only as to be for a while. The birds will lose interest, and the fish will get too big for what sounds like these "Green" herons.

I respectfully disagree. When I used monofilament line I ended up getting morning doves tangled in it by their wings. I prefer not to deal with that.

Give up, loose interest? Are you serious? These birds are very very persistent and intelligent. Once they find an easy meal they will be back time and time again. I've actually had them waiting in a nearby tree for me to go back in. And they instinctively take a jab at anything that moves, even if it's too big for them to eat.

I have you tried decoys? I have seen heron decoys and alligator decoys in acouple pond supply catalogs, but I dont know how well they work.

I have seen somewhere of a device that inflates a dummy quickly and then deflates all the while blasting a whistle every so many minutes, seems like it was for scaring deer or something. I have actually had the dang things hanging out on my dock! The bugger crapped all over the place.

The only pond I've had was a small ornamental goldfish pond that held about 800 gallons. I had a healthy population of fish that were breeding. I was even selling some fish to the local pet store. This little pond was 12 feet from my back door and the house was in Miami.

All the fish where different shapes and colors so it was easy to identify individuals. At some point I started noticing that certain fish seemed to be missing. Then I saw the giant splat of bird sh()t next to the pond. Great Blue Heron.

My little pond was a concrete box about 8 feet X 3 1/2 feet so I just made a screen for the top. That solved the predation problem, but it sure made the pond less enjoyable. Anyway, that obviously won't work on a farm pond.

When I get my pond stocked I don't want to spend time fighting with wild predators, so I'm trying to come up with a rational that will allow me to accept the losses.

Here goes...

What if I was willing to spend $XXX/year for a worry free, labor free, invisible method of stopping predation?

Okay now, what if I took that $XXX and simply bought more stockers?

See where I'm going with this? What say you?

That's the approach I am currently taking. Of course, my water is still very muddy. Occasionally a heron or egret will land, walk up and down the water's edge for a minute or 2, then fly away with a disgusted look on his face.

When the water clears, I will no doubt change my mellow attitude. My first attempt will be to erect a martin house. If that doesn't work, I will try a large, angry goose. If that fails, I will use a large, noisy goose...


gun

Will the birds reduce the population of fish to the point where you won't be able to catch the number or size of fish that you would like to?

Genetically speaking it seems like they would help strengthen the gene pool by eliminating slower/weaker fish.

Also, don't SOME of the fish being eaten need to be thinned anyway?

I suppose someone with hybrids has a slightly different situation....

They're too smart for that...unless you wait in a blind for them.

As soon as there's ANY movement or sound, they take off, go up into a tree, wait for you to leave, and come back.

I'm not so sure of the fishing line plan, REALLY ugly, and quite a hassle putting it all up.

Are they really protected? I don't see anything about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Blue_Heron

The safest way to guess whether a bird is "protected" or not, almost 100% of the time, if it doesn't have a hunting season on it, or isn't considered "eatable", it is probably protected. As to the bird-world being smart? I blasted my 12ga, O/O buck, along side both merganzers and cormorants, and they would just sit there and look at me until I walked towards them. How I rememdied that is still classified, but "simulated movement in a blind" after getting their (serious) attention works well.

No guessing about it guys. Great Blue Herons are federally protected. If you don't have a federal predation permit, and you get caught by a conservation officer shooting one you will be cited and will probably pay a hefty fine. Granted they are quite common and not endangered, but that's the way it is. As a fish farmer I can buy a federal permit after I have shown I have exhuasted all nonlethal methods of discouragement for $100.00. I then am allowed to take out the number of birds they allow me to. For me it would be one. I am at the stage where all I have to do is send in the $100.00, but I can't bring myself to spend the money yet. (It was only $10.00 the previous year) And believe it or not, I really don't want to kill the birds as they are only doing what nature intended them to do.

I am not only concerned with them taking out fish (I have lots of trout in one of my ponds that are perfect snack size right now), but they may transmit VHS in our Great Lakes states and they definitely are part of parasite cycles with snails -- namely the yellow grub. My fish loose value considerably if they have grubs.

So it's primarily the stakes for me although I may try an electric fence in the future.

My dog will have access to both ponds during the daytime. I can't imagine that he would ever get tired of chasing anything. Would any wading birds stand off a 70 lb dog? I suppose a goose might.

GW, I think your dog would be a good deterent. However, with Herons, I would be a little concerned about my dog losing an eye or something if it got mano-a-mano.

Chances are that the heron would be gone before the dog got up to him.

Cecil,

NO, not GREAT Blue Herons...mine are LITTLE Blue Herons. See the Wikipedia link I attached above. I don't see anything saying that THEY are protected.

I've thought about the dog too. A pet door at the house and one in the fence (I have goats I need to keep in the field) so he can go after them.

a dog works charms funny how they never seem to get tired of chaseing those birds time after time. our kittens teamed up on a goose and the goose didnt know what to do. he eventually flew away.

I was fishing in the channel between Perdido Bay and the Gulf last year and a Great Blue Heron kept trying to get into my bait bucket. I ran him off a half dozen times and each time when I went back to casting he would come back. I finally got PO'd and as I was chasing him off and calling him a not so polite name, I cast my lure at him. As luck would have it the lure caught him in the wing (not my intention, I swear). Anyway he took off running and hopping and trying to fly. The whole time he was letting out the most ungodly series of incredibly loud squawks and cries and honks that you ever heard. It was like flying a living, squawking kite. I reeled in line until I could get close enough to pin him down with the rod and grab his beak. The whole time I am trying to get the treble hook out of his tough skin he is beating me with his other wing and squawking like crazy. Needless to say when I got the hook out and let him go he didn't make any more attempts at my bait bucket. I am not sure which of us was more relieved when the ordeal was over. This method definitely worked for me but your results may vary.

Im sorry, but thats funny.

My dog loves to run them off. Only problem is sometimes she can't see them. I think the neutral gray and the slow movements throw her off. If she isn't looking out the window or doesn't see them fly in, many times I have to tell her "Bird, Bird, Bird! Then she goes absolutely balistic.

Yes the birds fly off before the dog can get to them. That is most fortunate for the dog. A heron goes for an eye when cornered and has been known to take eyes out.

Joe,

I recall you said the smaller herons but I got the impression we were talking about herons in general. I would bet anything they are also a federal bird and protected as all migratory birds are under the jurisdiction of the feds.

Your lucky he didn't stab you in the eye. They are quick and lethal with their beaks.

That, is a funny visual mikebee.

One of the problems you have to deal with when you're pier fishing is the Pelicans and Seagulls taking the bait that's on your hook. I remember trying to time my casts for when they weren't around and hoping it would sink before they got to it. I did catch one gull that way.

It's funny that this came up today. Yesterday I was back at the creek checking the water level and walked over to check out my neighbor's pond. Flop Ear Dog was with me and there were some Egrets hanging around the shallow side. I saw him sizing them up so I got out my camera.

When he first approaches them it looks like he's not really interested in the birds. Don't believe it. If there is something good to chase he gets very focused. The birds get fooled at first....

Cecil, that is one of the funniest stories I have ever heard!!! I just shared it with the extended family here. You could have passed it all of as perfectly planned and executed and thus started a brand new approach to Heron Deterrence!

edit; couldn't sleep a wink...overcome by guilt and nightmares about latex

That's photo's fake - too much chest hair.

Someone's singing soprano.