Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My butt continues to be kicked by this bird!

You guys will likely think this is silly.
I have a goldfish pond in the yard that was a happy hunting ground for a GBH. I found a plastic alligator about 3 feet long that looks real. Since placing my "scarecrow", I haven't lost another fish. For a large pond you'ld need a truckload, though.
What about some kind of automated "robo gator"?

Mike,
A couple of suppresor comments, to be effective the round should be sub sonic and they are not legal in all states. Plus applying for and obtaining one will put you on the ATFs short list, similar procedure for obtaining a machine gun.

I don't have a permit, but I do have a very brazen bird that has squawked at me 3 different times when trying to land at the ponds edge and all three times I was without smoke pole, not again! I wont be out of reach. The sucker killed another cat fish that was way too big for him to eat no telling how many of my HBG and RES that he has gotten but I can say not too many feeding.

I would put a real one in my pond, except for the dog.

The fake gator worked for a bit in the my fish holding ponds. In less than three weeks though I pulled into see the GBH sitting on top of it. It gave a better vantage point for picking off my trout. It is called habituaion and doubt it will work too long.

They are very intelligent and persistent birds that we can probably agree on. It's too bad I can't have a man to bird talk with them and get it straight that my ponds are off limits. Anybody a bird whisperer out there?

I haven't seen mine since I found some feathers in a clump in the water and since I got more fire power. I'm sure he'll be back, or they'll be another one. A fish farmer friend tells me not long after he whacks one another takes its place.

Cecil,

When I was a kid I was very fascinated at the thought of catching a bird. I could sit for hours with a string hooked to a stick that held up one end of an upside down box. Under the box would be corn, barley, scratch, whatever. If a bird were to come by for a snack, I would pull the string, the box would drop, and I would catch a bird. Never worked. I don't think I ever even saw a bird close to my boxes.

When I got a little older someone did teach me how to catch pheasant. Back in those days we lived near many of the Lake Superior grain elevators that held grain that came from Western Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakotas. Pheasant would follow the railroad tracks from out west and end up in our back yard. I would take two pieces of stove pipe connected with a stove pipe elbow. I'd put grain in one pipe up to the elbow. I'd set this out between our garage and a hedge. Most of the time various neighborhood critters would eat the grain. But, every once in a while, a dumb pheasant would walk into the pipe. It would get to the elbow, where it couldn't get around the corner. It also couldn't back up.

Lastly, my dad always told me that the best way to catch a bird was to sprinkle salt on its tail feathers. The object was to then grab the bird when it bent its head around to eat the salt.

Good hunting,
Ken

Cat, I, like you, spent many hours with a string tied to a stick before I finally found out about the salt trick.
I have been hesitant to mention it to Cecil, as he sometimes seems to be skeptical.

Many of you may not know it, but the salt trick was developed in India by locals trying to catch Kingfishers. As I was born in the states, I've mastered the technique on many bird species in the U.S.A.

I don't know if it would work in Cecil's situation.

I'll stick to lead or steel at high speed.

Good plan.
The salt thing has too many things that can go wrong, salt grains too small. shaker holes too large, bad technique, in my case too much humidity, but the list is endless.
Better to keep it simple.

Should the salt be iodized or uniodized? What about sea salt and kosher salt?

Should one use those big water softener salt pellets for large birds, like turkeys?

Theo,

You need to do some research and get back to us.

Yes, especially if you position it on the bird with one of these.

Since no one seems to know the answers to these questions (except Catmandoo wrt water softener salt), I have done some research which I will happily pass on.


Table salt is iodized by adding a minute quantity of Potassium Iodide (KI) or Sodium Iodide (NaI) to our ordinary Sodium Chloride (NaCl). Since Iodine is heavier than Chlorine and, if Potassium Iodide is use, Potassium is heavier than Sodium, iodized salt is heavier than non-iodized salt (ref. Periodic Table of the Elements below).


Now, when I was a small lad, my Dad told me that to catch a bird, I should sprinkle salt on it's tail, making it too heavy to fly. Clearly, since iodized salt is heavier than non-iodized salt, it would require a smaller portion on a bird's tail to place said bird on a flight restricted status. Therefore iodized salt is preferrable to non-iodized salt.

However, Catmandoo notes

Now, if THIS is the case, non-iodized salt were be the preferred shaken item, since "this salt does not contain iodine, a necessary nutrient" (it says so right on the label!). If the bird consumes non-iodized salt when it turns it's head around, it will be on an iodine-deficient diet, making it much more susceptible to goiters. Have you ever seen a bird with a goiter that was able to fly?

BTW, did you know that the state of Michigan was once known as the heart of America's "Goiter Belt"?

So, it boils down to whoever was telling us the best line of B.S. when we were kids - Cat's dad, or my Dad.

On to the remaining question:

It turns out that sea salt is only suitable for catching seabirds. In the interest of brevity I will omit the research showing this; it is left as an exercise for the student. And I have it on very good authority that kosher salt is NOT for catching birds, but rather for catching fish. At least I have always heard that only kosher salt should be used on gefilte fish.

Over the last couple of days, a groundhog much larger than my "Have-a-Heart" trap has been seen scurrying under my tool shed. He/she is too fat to run, and he/she is a big target, so I can probably shoot him/her -- but that has never worked before for a wide variety of reasons.

Has anybody ever had any success evicting or outsmarting a groundhog?

Ken

I have had some success with bigger have a hearts. Halved apples are the best bait I have found thus far.

Always be armed with a suitable weapon when you may get a shot and always look to see the groundhog before he can see you.

I hear just like anything else they get smart if you miss them too many times.

They used to dig under our barn back when I lived with my parents. My dad set traps and then we'd walk up to them and dispatch them. One day my dad asked me if I'd go down and take care of one that was in a trap. I couldn't figure out why he was grinning. Turns out we had s shunk in the trap.

They seem like docile creatures but when they are mad or cornered they can do a lot of damage. Never let a dog approach one in a trap! Their legs are really powerful from all that digging and they have claws!

On a funny note I had a couple of taxidermy customers that told me about a practical joke they pulled on a friend regarding groundhogs. They said the friend shot them out of his bathroom window at long distances with a rifle into a farmer's field.

For those of you that don't know farmers don't like them because they make holes and if you have livestock that can be especially bad. Anyway they skinned one out and filled it with concrete. They said he kept shooting at it over and over and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't go down.

By the way I had new bird vistors at one of the ponds today. Three Turkey Buzzards! Apparently a few dead fish I threw up on the bank after draining the pond looked pretty good to them.

I saw another good use for buzzards this weekend. They had picked clean the carcasses of 12 red sliders that had drifted to the edge. On a sour note...I saw a dreaded GBH(crane) at my pond. I first thought it was a kingfisher,which I nad seen before. When I came up near the feeder, he flew across the pond and stood on the other side. Knew I did not have armament. Luckily for me, the sides are pretty steep; not so lucky for all the frogs around the edge.

I was just starting to feel ok about wasting that heron and was even convinving myself that there was more than luck to the shot, when I see another one wading around eating fish. Luckily I had finally sighted in the Aimpoint and dispatching this one was a one shot deal.
That was two days ago, this morning number 3 shows up, but caught me of guard and flew before I could swing into action.

Now I am wondering, were there 3 all along? I just remember always seeing one stalking my fish every time I looked out at the pond.

They might be good to eat, I gave both to the house building crew, which they readily accepted.

Rad, I have a tame mallard infestation. 3 of them waddled into my pond a month ago, and refuse to be chased off. When I feed the fish, they come paddling up like they own the place, and eat the pellets in a flash. I hate to kill my neighbor's ducks (which neighbor I have no idea!), but they don't leave me any choice. Eating wise, there's no question... the gumbo will be good!

Bobad, It is amazing how easily an animal can be trained to do something you don't want and how much more difficult it is to untrain them. I will bet that there is nothing short of relocating or eating that would ever deter them.

Bon Appetit

By chance are they three male mallards (drakes)? Those could be the ones who enjoyed my pond and hospitality last summer. One took off in late July or early August. The other two took off in early September. What a bunch of moochers!