FOR THE BIRDS

I came home a few days ago to find a Blue Heron standing in the middle of the pond. I didn't know what to do, because I know they will eat koi, and eventhough I bought 11 this last time thinking half of them would bite the dust (not a single one died at a young age), I don't want them to go this way. I did the only thing I could think of--opened the door and hollered for it to go away. It went away allright. Two minutes later it was back again. My neighbors surely wondered what the heck was going on when I'd go out every two or three minutes and holler, "Get out of here and leave my fish alone!"

After I had done this about 10 times, the stupid bird finally left and didn't come back. He didn't show up the next day, so I was feeling pretty good about things. I didn't know if he had eaten all my fish since they hide in the leaves, but he was gone.

WRONG! Yesterday morning he showed up again. I was in panic mode, so after wearing myself out trying to run him off, I decided to go to Good Earth Nursery to see if they had a fake heron. I had read that they won't come around if they think another bird has claimed that territory. The only fake heron Good Earth had was an $876 stone one.

I called Chris Olsen who landscaped my yard, and he said to go to Home Depot and buy some netting to put over the pond. The heron would eventually get tired of not being able to get to the fish. Great idea, except this particular heron was standing in my pond at 7:00 this morning with a 6" koi in it's mouth. It was frustrated allright! He couldn't get the fish out of the pond to fly off with it, so he just stood there and bit chunks out of its side. I kept running the damn bird off til I had to leave at 9:30. In an effort to save the poor fish, I put the hard plastic lid from the pond pump over the edge of the pond so it could hide. It's sort of limping along and still barely breathing, but it won't come out from under the lid. Do you blame it?

Today I ordered a $20 plastic heron online. Who knows how long it will take to get here, but I guess until it does I'll be spending my mornings running off the heron. And it remains to be seen if it works. I have no idea if any of the other 10 fish are still alive or if the heron ate them before I discovered he was there. Stay tuned to see who wins the battle--me or the heron.