Mo,

If you're serious about keeping the herons out you can either run a electric line around the pond or some heavy monofilament to keep them from wading in. You don't need many stakes around the pond to do so. If you let some grass grow up around the edges the stakes and mono can be invisible. I hope to do an article on this in the future.

Herons are very cunning birds and I've seen them do things they are not supposed to be able to do. One was hunt from a bank that was alledgedly too steep to fish from. I've seen them spear fish off of my piers and stand on top of my fish cages. They have an incredible ability to be able to know what the normal range of a shotgun is and stay just out of it. However last year when I had my federal permit to take two out, I swithed to 3 1/2 inch shells with buckshot that reached out a little farther. But wouldn't you know it they would stand in front of something I didn't dare hit with buckshot like my well shed?

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.