If you have a water garden and can’t keep fish in your small pond or water garden you are being bothered either by raccoons or more likely the blue heron. This is a large bird, twice the size of a crow. It has a long neck and long beak and long spindly legs. So what do you do about these beautiful, legally protected, pond raiding birds?

It is not easy to discourage a heron. The Smithsonian magazine noted that herons will eat virtually anything that they can swallow whole. This includes documented cases of herons stalking and eating--get this--prairie dogs, and--gulp--a litter of kittens!

Their natural predators are not numerous, but do include the bald eagle, which will eat young herons, and crows, which will eat the eggs. Strangely enough both bald eagles and crows nest in heron rookeries. Here are a few ideas for pond protection I found, I hope they save a few fish!