This is such an old thread, I hope someone interested in herons still will see it. We’re in Texas, a few miles from a marsh preserve. First time in 15 years, a juvenile Yellow Crowned Night heron visited our pool/spa last week. She was here for a few days. She flew in again today. She likes to sit in the spa - it’s quite amusing. She sits with water up to her shoulders and dunks her head. The water is probably over 95 degrees, as today’s temp is 100, with feels like temp of 108. My worry is that she may not be eating enough to nourish her. We of course have no fish or crustaceans for her. We do have small lizards, some toads, frogs, and field rats. The rats run the fences, sometimes climb adjacent tree, forage flower beds and gardens. Every night I see what I tell myself is the same rat, ‘running the fences’. For many years there was a very large field one street over; now it is just large. Is anyone aware of herons feeding on rats? I wouldn’t worry about her so much if she was capable of catching those fast little critters. A couple of those per night would be a good meal, I would think. Oh, we also have opossums that come in baby season. Baby possums would also make a good meal for the heron. I have seen them swimming on the baby ledge of our pool. That was crazy. Seems the wildlife uses our pool more than we do these days.

Ok, I need bat advice. I actually bought a little bat house. And it's become a fixture in the dining room. :( I was thinking about climbing up into the sapodilla tree and nailing it up there, but wasn't sure if that would interest bats. Poles are out of the question in our yard too. Can you put them under the soffets? Our house is only one story, seems that might be too low for them to find. And we're on very tight lot lines, so they'd be in a really heavily trafficked area on one side of the house, with our neighbors and us rummaging around. On the side of the house where we rarely go, they would have plenty of peace from human disturbances, but the a/c unit is over there. Seems, being bats, they'd hate that noise. My only other thought is climbing up into the mahogany on the swale in the front yard and nailing it up there, but they'd have a power line to contend with there. (Yes, some prior homeowner planted two lovely mahoganies under the power lines, so FPL regularly has to come hack at them and one of them is probably going to die soon from the abuse. Ugh.) I really want bats. Any thoughts?

Hey congratulations Dakster! Glad to hear it. Penny

So nice to see photos of birds in California. Thank you for the opportunity, kathy.