Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New fish eating Bird at the pond this morning

It appears to be an "American Bittern." Anyone have this visitor at your ponds? I scared him off with a gunshot today. I believe he was here at the break of dawn yesterday too, but I scared him off when I walked up on him.

Here's the bird:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/American_Bittern_dtl.html

Cecil, I've seen them in our area but not at the pond, they like to stay out of sight and are not seen very often.

Just my luck. I shell out $100.00 for a Great Blue Heron permit and they stop coming. Then another fish eating bird that rarely shows up at ponds shows up. But I don't have a permit for that species!

Last year when I didn't have a permit I had Herons coming out of my ears!

*&^%%$$!

We bumped into a new stranger at the pond this past weekend. I am not absolutely positive on the I.D., but both Dski and I commented on the bright yellow-orange legs. I'm pretty sure we have it correctly identified.
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A green heron. He would work the shoreline, then fly up and into the trees to roost when we got too close.

Wow that is a beautiful bird!

We get LGHs here some years. There was one at the pond last week. I think they are much more attractive than GBHs - like a more colorful crow instead of some kind of malicious stork.

We have a green heron that likes to hide out in the cattails every year.

We have one also and a GBH and a kingfisher. With a good crop of RES I have not encountered any grubs yet. Those 3 birds/specie get a pass.

Nice pic B'ski.

We had a Great White Egret migrating through this last weekend, he stopped for a few hours along the dam.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Great_Egret_dtl.html#map

We typically have 2-3 Belted Kingfishers that call the pond home every year during the summer.

thanks...but...it's borrowed

I have one or 2 resident green heron's. They don't seem too awfully bad for the fish. They catch frogs, snakes, and fish a little. They're unwelcome, but I don't have a lot of anxiety about them.

We have 3 eagles that soar over the pond. I wonder how many fish they can catch in a day? They are magnificent.

I will confess a secret love of the fright noise LGH's produce when startled.

GARP!

Cecil, how would you feel about 60-70 these birds showing up on one of your ponds? Every so often they will stop for a short time on our place while they are migrating back to their summer range in the Canadian Rockies. I have never actually seen them eat a fish but I did have one try and snatch a LMB that I was reeling in once. The two pictured here are both males (only the males have the barnacle looking thing on the top of thier beak).

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/American_White_Pelican.html

We had a couple of those Pelicans on the lake this weekend, as well as half a doz. water turkeys. GRRRRRRR!

Shorty,

If had that many birds show up at the ponds I'd be running them off! One cool thing about the pier that goes all the way across the pond in the center of the biggest pond is the Geese don't have a chance. They used to just swim away from me around and around but no more!

I did have some rare wading birds show up once called Hudsonian Gotwitdes (sp?) that were apparently migrating on their way to Hudson Bay. They didn't stick around long and didn't seem to be fish eaters.

Clarification: When I said the geese don't have a chance I didn't mean I shoot them or anything. It's just that now with the pier they can't just keep swimming away from me. So they end up flying off in frustration.

When I was a kid, we had lots of them around the lakes in Northern Wisconsin. I don't know how many times I got with a few feet of a bittern before it would decide to wildly bob its head and take off from the tall reeds where I'd be fly fishing for bass or bluegill. "Startled" hardly describes the sensation.

They make neat sounds. Kind of like someone taking a big "glug" out of a moonshine jug.

Wow another species today. Two green herons like in shorty's picture. I fired a volley their way and they got the message. Hopefully they are just passing through as I've never seen that species before.

Folks if these were strictly recreational ponds I'd welcome all the birds. Problem is they are part of my livelyhood. And as I've said before I use all the persuasive measures I can before the final solution.

I understand completely, Cecil. I would feel very different if a heron could cost me $100-$200 with each swipe of his beak.

I wonder if LGHs are on the increase - I never heard of them when I was a kid, although GBH were very common at a nearby lake we fished. I think a number of bird species, like Crows and Redtailed Hawks, are much more numerous now than they were 40 years ago here. But I was a dumb city boy then, and may not have noticed them much.

Back when I was growing up I fished a lake in New England a lot as it was a little juant through the woods. Never ever saw a GBH. Last time I was there just a few years ago and there was a resident GBH. And there were a lot more frogs. Now hardly any frogs. I'm thinking the heavy DDT use back them may have eliminated them or reduced their numbers (GBH's) and the frogs didn't have a major predator.

Seems trite, but we spotted our first mallard in the pond. OK, the CG can stay for the photo...but no poopin'!
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Beautiful picture! I've got a pair of mallards that show up at least a couple times a day but I run off the CG's.

Here is a green heron on our pond yesterday.

I have seen gbh eat 12 inch lmb.

[quote=Brettski]Seems trite, but we spotted our first mallard in the pond. OK, the CG can stay for the photo...but no poopin'!

Might as well ask them to stop breathin'