"~ jan" wrote in message...
"a425couple" wrote:
(SNIP to reduce, lots of good stuff)
a few koi. Losing the fish to the racoons was an emotional
downer, and I fought with them for well over a decade,
As it turned out, we bought a house on a private 5 acre lake.
Now I have to routinely battle the beaver dams!! Argh!!

I ought to correct / clarify the above line.
It should be "Now during the winter every other day or
so, I have to reduce the beaver dams to minimize flooding."
(significant change in philosophy, I'm not doing any
"battle" now with wild animals).

Wow, that is quite the change.

I was living in almost bliss pond-wise in 08, the motion sprinkler took
care of any predator problems. ---- more motion sprinklers,
-- hot wire ----- herons --- braided wire -- More braided line --
Other than seeing the raccoons walk thru and keep on walking, nothing else
has ventured in and the fish have been safe. We also did lines across the
lily pond for just in case. All the lines are high up, so my visitors
don't
even notice them till I point them out. ~ jan

Sounds idyllic. Good for you.
You took the 'warding them off' (target hardening) path and
it sounds like it's worked well for you.

Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

So, by the way, was the hawk and heron just a wildlife kill,
captured on camara, or what?

On Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:22:26 EDT, "a425couple"
wrote:

"~ jan" wrote in message...
"a425couple" wrote:
(SNIP to reduce, lots of good stuff)
a few koi. Losing the fish to the racoons was an emotional
downer, and I fought with them for well over a decade,
As it turned out, we bought a house on a private 5 acre lake.
Now I have to routinely battle the beaver dams!! Argh!!

I ought to correct / clarify the above line.
It should be "Now during the winter every other day or
so, I have to reduce the beaver dams to minimize flooding."
(significant change in philosophy, I'm not doing any
"battle" now with wild animals).

Thinking of the beaver dams I've seen on TV, that has got to be a lot of
work, or are they small dams?

You took the 'warding them off' (target hardening) path and
it sounds like it's worked well for you.

So far so good, my concern now would be a kingfisher... but other than
seeing one once, and it and I both freaking out when we came face to face.
They've stayed away.

So, by the way, was the hawk and heron just a wildlife kill,
captured on camara, or what?

On my website? Yes, that was nature doing in nature. I've since heard
having eagle nests nearby wards off herons... just don't have a koi screen
saver on your smart phone. ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB9nLHjnX0g
~ jan



------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

So far so good, my concern now would be a kingfisher... but other than
seeing one once, and it and I both freaking out when we came face to face.
They've stayed away.


A kingfisher is a regular at my pond. He keeps the babies cleaned out.