Slightly OT: Protecting pond fish from herons

[Roger Mills]

I have a pond which (currently!) contains quite a lot of golden orfe - 60 or so. Just recently a heron has taken a great interest in them - and has already got one of the bigger ones out and left it to die, presumably because it was too big to carry away. He may have eaten some of the smaller ones - I can't really see how many are left because they are traumatised and hiding in the murk at the bottom. When I can persuade them to come up to feed, they are very jumpy.

Has anyone found any good DIY solutions for protecting their fish? I am wondering about a PIR which switches on a bright light and maybe a siren (although the neighbours might object!). Apparently herons feed at dawn and dusk. Anyone tried anything like this, or other solutions such as netting, decoys, etc.? We already have a scarecrow - which my wife calls 'Ron' because he's supposed to frighten away the heRONs(!) - but he seems to have lost his effect.

[DIY-Not]

A friend of mine had exactly this problem, a single heron decimated his collection of goldfish and completely traumatised his koi. He tried a decoy but it only worked for a couple of days before the heron came back. In the end he had to go with pond netting but this rather detracts from the aethetics of the pond.

Rather than a siren, why not hook up a motion detector to a garden sprinkler? Would also keep cats away as well, and more neighbour friendly.

[tinnews]

I think netting is the best low-tech solution, all the PIR/spray type solutions run a much greater risk of failure. We have black bird netting across our pond and it is really almost invisible. It's hooked onto bits of galvanised wire (AKA old wire clothes hangers) which I built into the paving around the pond so the supports are well nigh invisible too.

[Peter Parry]

[mike. buckley]

Yup, I've got netting over mine. It's not particularly pleasing on the eye, but the fish are still there and it's more of a wildlife pond with a few fish in than anything else, so looks aren't that important.

[Adrian C]

Seen something like that at Farnborough airshow a few years ago. It on display tracking every thing that landed on the field.

Made me feel a bit uneasy for some reason....

[Roger Mills]

[Huge]

You can rent them;

$150/sec running time.

[meow2222]

Thin wire strung low down horizontally sometimes works. The idea is the bird flies into accidentally, and thinking it has been attacked decides to stay well away. I forget the exact height but something like a foot up around the edges of the pons.

Moving the scarecrow every 2 days may buy you some time. Also a plastic bird of prey can have its uses.

NT

[The Wanderer]

Apparently herons fly in and land adjacent to the pond and then walk in the last couple of feet or so. I had some trouble a while back, but I put in some metal plant support stakes about a foot or so away from the edge of the pond - make sure you don't puncture the liner if it laps back under the edging.

The particular stakes I used were about 600mm long, with an adjustable 'plastic' collar with loop for tying plants. I pushed them into the ground about 250mm, and just ran a single line of fairly bright green polypropylene garden twine all round, and I've had no trouble since.[1] The twine is quite visible, it's long life, and after a few days you don't really notice it's there.

[1] Touch wood......

[Steven Briggs]

I do similar, but use nylon fishing line strung around and across the pond about a foot high. Generally seems to keep the herons off, though i do still the b******d occasionally.

Down side is I snagged an owl the other week. Found it one morning with the nylon line wrapped a couple of turns round one its wing tip feathers, with one my best shubunkins dead beside it. Owl was OK, eventually flew off come nightfall.

[Tony Williams]

Around here the standard solution is a statue of a heron, head/beak pointing skywards. This is on the basis that herons are very territorial and the thief shys away if it sees another heron already in possession of the pond.

[FKruger]

Interesting, I never knew owls fished. I've got an urban owl that I think is eating the other garden birds in my backyard but I cant find anything on the internet about them doing that.

[Roger Mills]

Yes, I've heard that suggested elsewhere. Does it actually work?

[Tony Williams]

The bungalow 500 yards up the road has fish in the pond, and enough area for a heron to land and take off. There has been a heron around the village for the last two years or so and that pond has not been touched...... unlike next door a few years ago, where 23 fish were taken by the heron, some of them quite old. :(