Bill Kerrell wrote:

We live within easy flight distance from the bay here in Pensacola. So we
had our visits from a Great Blue Heron. We were able to scare him away
several times. I covered the pond with screen. It looked terrible. So one
day I am at WalMart and in the garden dept found this 12" replica of a
Barn Owl. ($8.00 and change) Someone had said Herons will not come near
Owls ? Well it seems to have solved our problem. Every once in awhile I
see him (or Her) flying over at about 500' or so, but it keeps going. They
do have very good eye sight. I move the Owl around every couple of days.

I expect the moving is important. My friend sails for the Canadian Coast
Guard 28 days at a time, and came home once to find Gulls had pooped all
over his brand new truck - parked on the wharf for 28 days. So he put a
plastic owl in the back, and came back next time to find they'd pooped all
over the owl. I've seen the same at our harbour ferry terminal, where the
pigeons have left the fake owls the same white color as everything else.

Owls seem to work sometimes, but it's important to move them because other
birds stop even noticing them if they never move. I guess one of the
advantages of an owl over, for instance, a Red-tailed Hawk is that birds
don't expect an owl to move _much_.
--
derek