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No good asking nicely...
Well Tetley, I can tell you a not good deterent. My 8 stone Labrador who, last summer, sat in his basket wagging his tail while a heron ate half my fish!
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Big birds, directly descended from pterodactyls (?spelling) I think
In the sticks near Peterborough
We have a motion-activated wildlife camera which caught a heron eating a toad at the edge of our pond
Tetley, The Federation of British Aquatic Societies says, 'Herons eat mostly fish but will also partake of amphibians and small mammals plus small quantities of reptiles, insects, crustaceans, molluscs, worms and small birds. They fish mainly at dusk and dawn, which is why they are rarely seen in gardens and garden ponds.'
Since all my fish died the year of the big freeze, I have not replaced them. There are frogs, toads and common newts in my pond. Every year the heron turns up at frog mating time for easy pickings. C'est la vie.
I wasn't a heron which got mine, but an otter. B*ggers.
Over 30 fish gone overnight and trashed my waterlilies to boot.
The heron comes every year , like Fidget's, when the frogs are breeding. It is one of the signs that spring is on its way. It is very shy though and easily scared off - I have to move in slow motion (or crawl across the floor
) just to get close to the window for a good view. The ducks hate it (but they eat frogs too) and the geese usually raise the alarm, which makes the dog bark at it. She is very lazy and has contracted out spotting strangers to her avian colleagues
Lost most of my fish to our heron in the autumn. We always net the pond over the winter when there isn't much plant cover but this was just too early (my fault too as I'd cleared the pond because it was getting so overgrown). I thought they'd all gone as I didn't see any for a good fortnight but then 3 gradually reappeared as they regained confidence. I do think the heron is beautiful though.
Lost a huge number of newts to the heron last year.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Herons eat slugs too
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Mine never stays around long enough to be useful like that!