Well I have my first duck on my pond, I couldn't take a picture cause he would stay underwater it is a diving duck. My best guess looking online is a Pied-Billed Grebe. Now since they eat fish do I take care of him or let him be? Just wanted some peoples thoughts on this.
I would let him be, they will eat mostly smaller fish and they are federally protected.
http://birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=6 Diet
Insects, fish, and other aquatic creatures make up the bulk of the Pied-billed Grebe's diet. The birds' heavy bills are adapted to crushing large crustaceans, but Pied-billed Grebes are also opportunistic feeders, preying on a wide variety of aquatic creatures including fish. Like other grebes, Pied-billed Grebes will eat and feed their own feathers to their young. It is thought that these feathers help them regurgitate bones and other non-digestible parts of their diet.
Thats the problem the pond is new and newly stocked so all the fish are smaller.
On a spicket, over an open fire, Duck are really good! Now I am starting to salivate!
I can speak from experience on mallards, wood ducks, and black bellied whistling ducks. Mallards are a pain,,, they creep up and steal my feed, minnows, shrimp, and crawfish at a rate 10X faster than fish. The other 2 species have been fine so far, no complaints.
Thats the problem the pond is new and newly stocked so all the fish are smaller.
Scare him off by whatever means you can as in rocks, bottle rockets, even a gunshot without hitting him. He'll probably get the message. My guess is the bird being by itself is in transit anyway.
I agree with Cecil, the grebe will move on... He is heading north to Canada. He'll be gone in a day or two if I had to guess. Grebes don't eat many fish, more inverts.
I have no problems with ducks. Mostly mallards here. The come and go. It's the geese I hate. If you blast one they won't come back for years.
Biggest mistake I've made to date, They will devour your fish food when feeding and I have never seen one get tired of eating.
Also you will have feathers littering your pond year round.
DONT DO IT !!
'Just my opinion'
Some of you may remember in the one pond we use for swimming we had a serious problem with swimmer's itch (duck itch) last summer. At one point the wife had 40 some welts from the parasites that barely penetrate the skin and die leaving an inflamation. We had to give up swimming much to the disappointment of my wife that has bad knees so it's really the only good way for her to exercise.
Anyway last year was the first year for that and it happened shortly after I had a pair of mallards show up and stay on and off. I've had ducks here before but for some reason that was the first time we had a problem. A factor may have been a heavy infestation of Sago Pond weed which probably gave the snails and the parasites something to adhere to. This year I plan on taking care of the Sago Pondweed with Whitecap herbicide once I have enough funds to purchase it!