Thursday October 2, 2003
Aaaaiiiieee!!!!!

I opened the back door to take a look at the pond and a Great Blue Heron burst into flight!

We've had this pond for over three years and that never happened before. Does this mean we've hit the big time? An article I read on preparing a pond for winter mentioned putting a thin net over the pond to keep leaves out, with a side mention that it would keep Heron from harvesting your fish.

"Ha!" I thought, "as if we'll ever need that."

Or, as Faith so aptly put it, "Bummer if you lose your fish after all of that work!"

We put Zeke out to guard the pond, but he just sits there moping, looking in through the back door. The Heron returned and landed on the roof. I knew this because Zeke cocked his head skyward for a moment. We rushed outside and yelled at it like crazy. Zeke barked and did his best to chase it away now that we'd identified the threat.

What to do?


Newsflash: At 1730 hours, October 2, 2003 Uncle Jer snapped. At 1733 he started running fishing line back and forth across the pond, muttering to himself and slashing at the empty air. At 1740 the fishing line ran out and he cracked open a fresh ball of twine and started anew. At 1755 the twine ran out. He was last seen running across the fields yelling "the sky better not be falling!"

Jerry goes crazy...

At 1800 hours the sky started falling...

Snow??


Pedraum • 2003-10-02 06:50pm

You've got Heron. My dad's been dealing with racoons for years. I'm about to buy him this to give it a go:

http://www.smarthome.com/6120.html
jerry • 2003-10-02 06:54pm

I've seen one of these in action at a big pond in Germany. In fact I almost got nailed by it while walking around the pond's edge in a quiet introspective moment.


Tedhieron • 2003-10-02 07:20pm

That's another reason to get an iSight! Hook it up to some intrusion-detection software, trigger the hose, and you're sans heron! (Sounds like a new typeface...)
jerry • 2003-10-02 08:27pm

I've been thinking about it and I bet the heron has been here in the past day or two. Yesterday while cleaning up around the edge of the pond I noticed a severe lack of frogs. The day before I had counted five, yesterday I didn't see a one.

None of them showed up for role call this afternoon either. Hopefully they just ran for cover and will be back when the coast (skies) is clear.