A few minutes ago a damn Osprey just took my biggest goldfish from my pond! Right in front of me.

Now he knows there’s more to be had.

Time for some netting…
I’ve got 2 hawks culling mine…
John

Hey John I’ll bring along my 12 gauge when we work on your layout this week. In the mean time get some of those battery operated fish like John Mason has in his pond. That’ll be a surpise for that bird.

That’s one of the reasons we don’t have fish in our water features. The neighbour, two houses up, stocked his small pond with fish - Koi no less. Between the blue herons and the raccoons it reverted back to “just a water feature” in short order.

He hasn’t come back today. I put a grate across the pond for now. Once the Lilly pads cover the surface, he won’t be able to see them. He only took one–the biggest. I think the rest are too small.

A great blue heron did that a few years ago in my pond, They are huge birds! So I built a screen for the pond, but the bird never came back. Got rid of the screen a last year all OK. I do have lots of vegetation for them to hide. I also have frogs, toads, and now a resident snake. But the goldfish seem to be well skilled at reproduction, so the populations seems to stay stable. Nature in the raw!

Jerry

A few years back a friend of mine called me to tell me her pond was decimated by a Blue Heron. Her pond is very large, and quite visible from the air. My pond is small, and in the shadow of a tree and porch roof, so its difficult to see from the air. I haven’t had any visits from a Blue Heron (that I know of).

Something does fish in my pond from time to time. One summer I had a one eyed fish due to a failed attempt by something to snare him. I don’t know is its one of the roaming cats or a raccoon that fishes in my pond. I haven’t seen any racoons around here, but I have been told there are some around.

Like Jerry said, the goldfish do reproduce enough to replace losses and expand the population a bit. Besides, I stocked my pond with feeder fish at 10 cents a piece. So, while I would hate to loose any, I can replace the losses at minimal cost.

We now keep a net over our small pond year round, due to the Blue Heron. We just let the cattails and other tall plants grow up through it.

Had the same problem with my pond.

The fix was get a full size heron or regret replica and place it next to the pond.

Reason this works is these birds do not like like to feed next to another bird, they do not like competition for food.

Just move the bird occasionally.

Never thought putting netting or screening over a pond works well, it increases the maintenance of the pond.

Dennis

Dennis Cherry said:

Had the same problem with my pond.

The fix was get a full size heron or regret replica and place it next to the pond.

Reason this works is these birds do not like like to feed next to another bird, they do not like competition for food.

Just move the bird occasionally.

Never thought putting netting or screening over a pond works well, it increases the maintenance of the pond.

Dennis

Well, I’ve heard they don’t work so well, so never wasted my money on one. Check out this video … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-wzz3hc7sk

I had a Blue Heron there once. I scared him off before he could start fishing. My pond is right next to the greenhouse, so it is hard to make a controlled landing by a big Heron. An Osprey dropping straight down with a huge splash is a different approach altogether.

Del, That pond is a small lake, so the herons can establish fishing zones. The average backyard pond is small enough that a decoy might work. (Unless it is mating season… )

Netting works!

How about instead of a net try placing several wires across the pond which will deter diving birds and not look as unsightly as a net.

I have also seen these motion detecting things that squirt water when activated. That might be enough to scare the critters away.

We used a chicken wire screen in a wooden frame to deter an egret after it carried off our biggest goldfish from our small pond.

We made removable netting sections using PVC pipe to cover our pond when we are not running trains or sitting outside enjoying it.
My pond is 18’ long by 8’ wide, so we did (4) removable sections. Takes less then 2-minutes to remove them and put them back on.
The fish stay safe, the leaves stay out, and it doesn’t disrupt the water fall.
Sure it doesn’t look pretty with them on… but then again, they are only on the pond when we are not out there.

I found using a Heron decoy my fish would not come to the surface. You don’t want them getting used to the decoy as not dangerous. My fish have learned, see a Big Bird and Dive to the bottom. One method Herons use to catch the fish is to regurgitate there food into the water. Fish come up to eat…Bam they’re pray. Lost some goldfish over the weekend while we gone, went out back Sunday evening to find a Heron walking up to the pond. Didn’t have the net up, next time I won’t forget.

I still think the 12 gauge shotgun is the answer. No more bird, safe fish!!!

The nylon fishing line strung 1 foot over the pond is another option. Confuses the birds as they cannot move to a good fishing spot.

Well, imagine what a pterosaur would do to us humans. LOL

The scale…BTW…Heron in a G scale railroad outdoors and a Pterosaur in 1:1 scale human is quite frightening…wouldn’t you say.

LOL

Poor fish!