Cecil B, I agree. The birds are just doing their "bird thing", so I elected to 'pepper' them at a distance, BUT,,, As I have said, Merganzers are really smart, and by this morn, I raked them pretty good and at first they just sort of flinched,,,,, Flinched at a blast from a 12ga!!! and then flew away at their leisure. The thing is, if i don't hassle/thin the merganzers, that many on my small pond will eventually wipe me out of BG, and most probably more. They are relentless hunters and I am seeing that they really do a number on the BG in very little time. Many of what they don't eat or wound, seem to have little heart attacks and die anyway. But too, a scare-crow after a season of peppering them might be the key. I have another week home to experiment, and then it's back on the road and the pond is back in the Lord's hands... \:\)