If a heron discovers a pond, will it eat its fill whenever it shows up, or
just grab one fish and go? I have a preformed pond surrounded by plants
(toads and frogs would love it, if I could get any, but that's another
story), which had 14 goldfish about three inches long (one was an orando,
which sure as heck couldn't jump out.)

They all made it through the longest winter in Baltimore history (as did
my painted turtle), but I've lost six of them since April. And I mean
lost, as in they disappeared. There's been no sign of remains in the
pond, which lets the turtle off the hook (she can't catch them, anyway -
in almost two years, she never even came close to catching a fish, even
the oranda), and turtles are messy eaters - there'd be scales in the pond
if she was guilty, even of only eating fish that died naturally. There's
also been no bodies or parts or crowds of flies outside the pond, and the
potted plants on the ledge are never knocked over, which would seem to
absolve raccoons or cats. We've never seen a snake in six years of the
pond being up, so that's unlikely. We've never seen a heron, either (the
flamingos make the buffet look occupied, perhaps), and I'd figure a heron
would scarf a bunch of smallish fish at a time, but what's left?



Alan

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