Exactly the same happened to me - no 'visitors' for 8 years and then
suddenly a couple of months ago I got up in the morning and a huge bird was
standing within feet of my conservatory door gazing in the pond. I thought
he's eaten the lot as the water was all churned up and not a single fish in
sight.
It took 2 days for them to start emerging from the bottom of the pond under
the plants (thank God, safe), so they must have been very distressed by the
attack.
I rushed out and got a very good Heron replica which is still standing on
the edge of the pond, but it's not 100% effective as the Heron came around
again although didn't attack. So - I resorted to netting, expecting it to
look dreadful.
However, I got black, very fine netting and stretched it very tightly over
the main pond, pegging it down in the soil behind the rocks - you can hardly
see it. And it works - no more visitations !! I can sleep again at night
knowing my little friends are safe.
It's not necessary to net the waterfall obviously as there's no fish there -
couldn't you do the same thing somehow across your main pond, pegging the
netting behind the rocks ? I used wire 'corners' which I snip off each end
of wire hangers to peg the netting - they make very flexible pegs which can
be pushed into small cracks, they are strong and virtually invisible.

"Goldlexus" wrote in message
news:6%hfi.4946$pT4.3080@trndny06...
We have had Koi and goldfish in our pond for 3 years and NEVER had a heron
come around here, until, today.
My goodness they are big birds! Anyway, he swooped in a got one of the
goldfish My daughter saw it and totally freaked out that a bird ate one
of our fish. My question is what is a good deterrent? Our setup is a 14
foot high pressure waterfall going down to a 1000 gallon pond. Would
putting a small fountain in the middle of the pond deter the heron. He has
been back since this afternoon but he knows where he can get a quick meal
now. I am sure he will be back. Need suggestions. BTW netting wouldn't be
a very good option since we don't have anyplace to secure it. Here is a
link to a videos of the pond...
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...ndVideowmv.flv I
think you can see why we can't really secure a net.