HI guys! As I wait for my 10,000 minnows comming on Wed. from Dutchman as a 5 year old boy waits for first light on Christmas morning ,I had a thought.(yes that happens to me once in a while) I regularly see white cranes at the natural cattle ponds in the area ,however I've only seen one at our pond once in three years.This is the first time I've put minnows in my pond, is there a good chance that I will have fat cranes instead of fat LMB ? Or am I putting on a bandaid before I get cut? Thanks! Kevin

How many cranes are you talking about. I doubt a couple will make much of a dent in 10,000 minnows. A great big flock - maybe (assuming they eat minnows).

CG, yer white cranes are probably egrets. i have had a pair of egrets and a pair of great blue heron all summer, i asked my mosquito fish if they were bothered by this, and they said "why no, not at all".

i have thousands upon thousands of mosquito fish, and by my estimation the numbers keep growing despite the potential predation. what i did notice however, is a decrease in my adult bullfrog population. i believe the herons and egrets are targeting the bullfrog tadpoles, juveniles and adults over the "minnnows".

The only problem with these types of birds is the parasites they might bring to the pond. Here in MN as soon as I get Blue Herons in my pond for a few weeks I will start seeing fish parasites show up. There is a particular yellow grub type parasite whose life cycle is snails to fish that eat the snails to birds that eat the fish then back to the snails when the bird craps in your pond. Not sure where the cycle starts but the worm will grow inside the fish and migrate out into the meat and show up as up to half inch long yellow worms in the meat. I'm sure egrets can pass this along as well. I highly discourage any herons or egrets spending any time on my pond and ever since no worms. Not sure if they exist in CA but check this site out for more info on them:
http://www.mdc.mo.gov/documents/fish/aquaguides/parasites.pdf

The pond is off of crane ridge road, thats why i thought they are cranes. they are about 3 feet tall .How tall are egrets? Now we have some huge blue herrons too.I've seen more birds in one week than in 3 years since the minnows were added, and now are almost gone..

I have a resident white egret that nests in a tree above my pond. I have some type of smaller (about 1 foot tall) heron that stocks the shore line as well.

One day the egret seemed to be having a field day taking some fry out of the shallows. I got fed up and paddled the kayak over to the shallows. I sat there in the kayak and shouted at the the large bird, I even splashed water at him. All he did was slowly look up at me. It might be my imagination but he seemed to be giving me the "stink eye." If he could talk I sure he would have said "Are you shouting at me, are YOU shouting at ME!" I had visions of being attacked by the sharp billed beast and decided to leave him be. I didn't want to become the subject of a remake/update of the Alfred Hitchcock classic.

I finally just decided that it was all part of the cycle of nature thing and ignore it. I gotta tell ya it's tough being a Type A personality and a pond owner. .

Anyway, your bass and bluegill are eating a lot more minnows that the egret will. After all I read in one of the pond boss books that it takes 10 pounds of food for a bass to grow 1 pound (or something like that). Did you know how many minnows it takes to weigh 10 lbs?? Me either but I bet it's a lot.

Hmmm, and I'm the one on medication????

By the way you have very polite mosquito fish.

Jeff,

The heron around here can hear the zipper on my guncase from about a mile away.

jeff, ya think its because their parents came from Placer County?

i noticed that when in boat, critters (egrets, bullfrogs etc.) arent scared of me. in middle of day, egrets keep feeding in shallows and i can row right up to bullfrogs and almost reach out and grab them. in fact when i take the wife or her niece for a little ride its fun to scare em by getting so close to bullfrogs they almost jump in boat. however, when i walk up on them from shoreline, they take off ASAP, you might try that technique w/ yer feathered friend, but remember, safety first...wear hard hat, gloves, safety glasses and steel toed boots

your one foot tall stalker is likely a green heron or black crowned night heron.

bz, i havent spotted any parasites in fish out here in 10 years, but if i do, i'll likely take issue w/ my shorebirds.

CG, there are a couple different kinds of egrets most common in CA are snowy and great. the great gets 3 ft tall and has a yellow bill, snowy gets about 2 feet tall, has a black bill, and breeding males have beautiful fluffy feathers (plumage) which almost caused its extinction in CA. the great egret is sometimes called a white heron.

you might also see a sand hill crane, but they are not stark white like egrets, and are usually found in big marsh areas in the CA central valley

sorry to hear your minnows are almost gone, i would think factors other than just the birds caused this, or maybe they are just hiding out of yer site?

BarO, when i close my kitchen door and walk outside, our GBH leave the pond, they are either really smart, really shy, or both.

I think you guys are all correct about the fish and the birds (and prob. the bees too). I think i need to correct my stocking fopah with a whole bunch of bluegill. The birds are fun to watch...

my wife took a few pics last weekend, here is one of our resident egrets.....