I'll share an idea for others to try. I have never found a great way to scare of the GBH at our place. I have tried all different ways and he/she just circles up into a big dead tree next to the pond or behind the house and then a few minutes later comes back and starts fishing again. Often if I'm successful a few too many times I'll catch him coming back at 11:30-Midnight and doing his thing. How in the world do they fish in the dark????
Since I have to walk or run down to the pond from the house it would be nice to be able to scare it away from the front porch. I'm sure a BB or pellet gun might work but I don't want to break a federal law by killing it. Airsoft isn't accurate at that distance. I imagine a remote control car or a drone would work fine to scare them away but that means it has to always be charged and ready.
Our youngest son has developmental needs and low vision plus problems understanding in his brain what he is seeing. We use a roughly 14"x10" mirror (amazon) propped in front of him to help him learn to make out faces by looking at his own. One day I grabbed that mirror and stepped on the front porch and in a second I was reflecting the strong sun light into the eyes of the GBH. I don't know if his retina was burning or just the flash of the light as I tried to aim it in his eyes was enough but he was immediately gone.
The advantage of this was it was easy to keep a mirror by the front door. The sun reflection allowed me to create a very bright and annoying 'laser beam' at quite a distance and was very visible and effective (for the time being) scaring the GBH away.
Disadvantage is it may not reflect a half a mile or more. Also, of course, in Michigan it is often cloudy and you need good strong sunlight. However in most states especially southern states I'm sure the sun is pretty strong and visible all day long. As I came out on the porch and the GBH saw even the slightest flash of light he took off immediately as he learned that he didn't like that light in his eyes. The rest of the week I only saw the GBH at night.
I would think even a hand mirror used to see the back of a lady's hairdo would work but a larger lightweight one worked well for us. Here is an example on amazon.
