Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Sunday Evening Poll

NO.

Not instinctive.

BUT, I bet it happens through shear circumstance. I have caught a number of LMB with healed heron strikes on their backs, one that had two. I have surprised a heron that just caught a bass from my pond, causing it to fly to the other side of the pond where it dropped the bass - on the ground. By the time I got to the LMB it was non-revivable. But if the heron had dropped it in the water, it might have been soon enough for it to live.

Now suppose the heron catches a fish, it flies to one of my neighbors ponds (>12 within a half mile, several within 1/4 mile) and drops the fish in the water. It might be quick enough for the fish to live.

There's only an infinitesimal chance of this happening each time a heron catches a fish. There will be a distance limit between ponds, over which no fish can be flown fast enough to survive (varying, of course, on the species of fish, species of bird, and (at least) the weather - think what a cold rain could do to the fish's chance of living?). But it could happen.

Assume a 1/1,000,000 chance of a heron catching a fish and flying to another pond. A further 1/1,000,000 chance of the fish landing in the pond and living. Now figure in the number of ponds/other bodies of water in the U.S., the number of herons/cormorants/merganzers/etc., and how many time per year they have to catch a fish to live. The remainder is left for the Carl Sagan inspired student, who is not getting over the flu and hence has the full use of his/her mathematical facilities, to calculate as an exercise.

But definitely NOT on purpose.