Visited by A GBH Today
 

Saw a Great Blue Heron fly off from beside my pond today when I drove up.
I've got leaf netting over the pond so I'm not worried about the fish, yet.
I usually take it off after all the leaves have fallen but may want to
rethink that this year.

Visited by A GBH Today
 

On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:54:22 EST, "JB" wrote:

Saw a Great Blue Heron fly off from beside my pond today when I drove up.
I've got leaf netting over the pond so I'm not worried about the fish, yet.
I usually take it off after all the leaves have fallen but may want to
rethink that this year.

I agree with leaving it. I use to take my screens off. Thankfully the
herons didn't discover that.... what I found was no matter how clean I got
my yard of leaves (and I would shop vac it) the wind would bring in the
neighbors' leaves. Thus leaving the screens on has given me peace of mine,
nothing can blow in, I don't have shop vac the yard, and nothing can get to
my fish.

Granted it isn't the pretty picture in winter, but after the 2nd-3rd
year.... don't care. And now days, I'm so busy if I have a chance to make
sure the water level is up I'm doing good. ;-) ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Visited by A GBH Today
 

"JB" wrote in message
m...
Saw a Great Blue Heron fly off from beside my pond today when I drove u
p.
I've got leaf netting over the pond so I'm not worried about the fish,
yet. I usually take it off after all the leaves have fallen but may wan
t
to rethink that this year.
==========================
We had one last winter that completely cleaned out the 150g in ground pon
d.
This spring we removed this small pond and filled in the hole. We gave a
way
all the fish in the in ground 800g pond and removed the net. GBHs ignore

ponds with no fish. Now I'm trying to find a home for all the koi in the

2000g pond and three 720g above ground tanks behind the house. It's too
much work for us at our age and the cost of hiring pond Caretakers more t
han
we want to spend. I'll leave the two ponds out front for the frogs and
turtles and sell or put away the liners and tubs out back.


--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

I'm in the UK and don't know about GBH's, but last week a grey heron flew down to my pond, jumped in, grabbed a frog, jumped out, half ate it and then flew off. We don't have any fish so it must have had very keen eyesight to spot the frog hiding in the marginal plants.

Visited by A GBH Today
 

Janet Conroy wrote:


I'm in the UK and don't know about GBH's, but last week a grey heron
flew down to my pond,

Really? I spent 3 months outside Brussels a few years back and watched
Herons from the hotel, daily, and I could have sworn they were Great
Blue Herons. Whatever they were, I'd be amazed if they don't have them
in the UK, and if those were Great Blues, they're so similar to ours
that anything we'd say about Great Blues would go for them too.
--
derek

Visited by A GBH Today
 

Derek Broughton wrote:

Janet Conroy wrote:


I'm in the UK and don't know about GBH's, but last week a grey heron
flew down to my pond,

Really? I spent 3 months outside Brussels a few years back and
watched Herons from the hotel, daily, and I could have sworn they were
Great
Blue Herons. Whatever they were, I'd be amazed if they don't have
them in the UK, and if those were Great Blues, they're so similar to

Sorry - that should have been "if those _weren't_ Great Blues..."

ours that anything we'd say about Great Blues would go for them too.

--
derek

Visited by A GBH Today
 

Derek Broughton wrote:
Derek Broughton wrote:
Janet Conroy wrote:
[ . . . ]

Predatory birds are incredibly intelligent. My pond had been ravaged by a
GBH many years ago. I gave away my Koi several years ago and drained the
pond. To this day, a GBH occasionally lands on my garage, cocks his head
and checks out my former pond before flying off!

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!
I support them at https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops.
You are not forgotten. Thanks ! ! ~Semper Fi~

Visited by A GBH Today
 

heirs of the velociraptors..... they is the dinosaurs that walk/fly among us!!!!!!!

On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:15:17 EST, Nick Cramer wrote:
Predatory birds are incredibly intelligent. My pond had been ravaged by a
GBH many years ago. I gave away my Koi several years ago and drained the
pond. To this day, a GBH occasionally lands on my garage, cocks his head
and checks out my former pond before flying off!

Just checked on Google and it was definitely a Grey Heron. The first ever Great Blue Heron was sighted in the UK (on the Scilly Isles) only last Dec. GBH's seem to be mainly confined to the Americas and the Carribean. Whatever, greys are big buggers. I also have a lurking sparrowhawk in the back garden.

Visited by A GBH Today
 

Janet Conroy wrote:


Just checked on Google and it was definitely a Grey Heron. The first
ever Great Blue Heron was sighted in the UK (on the Scilly Isles) only
last Dec. GBH's seem to be mainly confined to the Americas and the
Carribean. Whatever, greys are big buggers.

Glad you cleared that up. I was trying to find my English bird book
yesterday, and can't manage to locate it.

I also have a lurking sparrowhawk

(kestrel? :-))

in the back garden.

I had a Marsh Hawk (Northern Harrier) on the weekend. I was sure they'd
left here for the winter.
--
derek

Derek: no, definitely a sparrowhawk.

Visited by A GBH Today
 

Janet Conroy wrote:

I also have a lurking sparrowhawk -

(kestrel? :-))

Derek: no, definitely a sparrowhawk.

It was a joke. There are many true "sparrowhawks", but on this side of the
pond, the only thing called a sparrowhawk is actually not - the American
Kestrel.
--
derek

Visited by A GBH Today
 

Yesterday morning had a GBH fly right over the house. My neighbor had
reported seeing one on my roof a month or 2 ago. Ponds were already
screened for winter by then, not sure what he's finding in the neighborhood
with things all snowed and/or iced over. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Visited by A GBH Today
 

GBH spotted again yesterday morning standing by my pond. To my knowledge, no
fish have yet been "harvested". Most of the smaller fish look to be huddled
underneath one the several black plastic milk crates I use to support
plants. The larger Koi are clustered in a "pod" at the deepest (4') end of
the pond. I built my pond without shelves so as to deter visits by raccoons
et al. Still, my have to revert to reinstalling my leaf netting if it gets
to that.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

JB

"~ jan" wrote in message
...
Yesterday morning had a GBH fly right over the house. My neighbor had
reported seeing one on my roof a month or 2 ago. Ponds were already
screened for winter by then, not sure what he's finding in the
neighborhood
with things all snowed and/or iced over. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Visited by A GBH Today
 

"JB" wrote in message
m...
GBH spotted again yesterday morning standing by my pond. To my knowledge,
no fish have yet been "harvested". Most of the smaller fish look to be
huddled underneath one the several black plastic milk crates I use to
support plants. The larger Koi are clustered in a "pod" at the deepest
(4') end of the pond. I built my pond without shelves so as to deter
visits by raccoons et al. Still, my have to revert to reinstalling my leaf
netting if it gets to that.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

JB


How do you train your fish to huddle under the crates ?
Seems like it could be better protection system from the GBH than jans
water pistol !

Regards
Pete
www.thecanalshop.com