Heron Overload

That grocery store pond is always calling me…

The water level is very low. Great for waders!


Great Blue Herons keep distance between us.

A dear Environmental Science teacher in Maryland kept those fancy, chubby goldfish in a classroom aquarium - you know, the ones with the bulging eyes and fleshy growths on them. They have no ability to swim away from danger. They chug along, taking a few seconds to make a u-turn. They're so unlike wild, darting Comets. One June, he asked me to add them to my pond. I warned him, “John, I have a heron…”. John was delighted to make the contribution, if you know what I mean. I agreed and added them slowly and gently to the pond whilst out of the corner of my ever vigilant eye, I saw the “Stinker” watching my business from the rooftop of a neighbor’s house. This particular heron had me penciled in for a stop on his lunch route every day. I ran toward him waving a broom but he remained unruffled.

A day later, those poor, obese goldies met their maker, along with the rest of the goldfish I kept. It’s frustrating to come face to face with a bird almost as tall as I am, looks like he should be covered in fur instead of feathers, and who outsmarted me so many times. Looking through my kitchen window, our eyes would meet and before I could call Chloe and race to the door, he’d already be in that awkward looking take-off mode down the back, looking hilariously ridiculous. Once, before he was in flight, I hurled a baseball but missed by several yards. Chloe was near his tail. I didn’t want to hurt him. I only wanted to scare the heron crap out of him.

In Delaware I kept Koi for the first time and they grew from four to twelve inches in the three years we lived there. Herons visited during severely cold winters when the nearby river banks and natural ponds would freeze. The heater in my pond kept the waterfall moving and large parts of the pond unfrozen. Herons never ate there but showed enough interest, even when the fish rested on the bottom of the pond during winter hibernation. Pond nets were a nuisance and owl decoys didn’t matter. The most successful deterrent, after all, were aluminum pie plates I strung around the pond area. Seven or eight of them clacked together and made enough sound and sunlight glare to scare hungry birds away.

To date, no visitors in my North Carolina backyard!

I probably just jinxed myself.

Now I’m getting to know little Green Herons.

I watched a young one investigate an old tree limb and the water beneath it.

Nice dragonfly, nice job!

Mom flew in to give warning to the young one a few times but always returned to her own perch, half-way across the pond.

Here she is. Ms. No Neck.

Look what happens when she’s in an alert mode. Where does she keep her neck?

UP, PERISCOPE!