"Malcolm" wrote in message
...

In article , sacha
writes
in article , Alison at
o.uk wrote on 23/1/03
10:29
pm:

Back to this pond thing again (have read previous posts but the heron
bit
wasn't covered). Up until now the only 'worry' we've had with the
ponds is
the heron thinking it's easy fishing :-( but that has been a big worry!
Now
there are horrible unsightly beams straddled across both ponds with
black
garden netting stapled on tight. That seems to have fixed the problem
but
was a temporary measure until something more attractive could be found.

Now we have the double whammy of a baby on the way. I love the ponds
and
fish so we're not considering filling them in.

One is a very informal wildlife pond (that the birds etc can't even
bathe at
now cos of the ugly protection) about 5m x 7m at extremities. The
other is
a formal round raised pond about 3m diameter with fountain in the
middle.

If we go the heavy-duty-wire-mesh-just-at-surface-and-not-sagging route
for
child safety and attractiveness, will the heron still be capable of
killing
the fish but not making off with them? Can I deter the blasted bird in
any
other supplementary way. The informal pond also has a water jet heron
scarer and, whilst operational, I've never had the guts to rely on it
solely
for protection (hence the netting also).

All suggestions warmly welcolmed as we'd like to get things in place
before
all the pond plants start growing again.

When I had a similar sort of wild life-ish pond, I strung fishing line
around the edges and criss-crossed the pond, too. Apparently, the
important
thing is to stop the heron wading in because that's when they catch the
fish
and (I'm told) they have fish attracting scent glands in their ankles.

Hmm. Whoever told you that was having you on!

The
thing with the fishing line is that as long as you keep it absolutely
taut
it's almost invisible.
I think a small gauge heavy duty wire mesh will do the trick for you.
The
herons aren't going to waste their energy trying to catch fish they can't
carry off - they're not stupid!

They will, however, swallow it on the spot and then fly off!


Wouldn't they have to get the fish through the mesh to be able to swallow
it, Malcolm?