Your paph is a hybrid. To find the species involved you can google each of the parent names and possibly find the species. Someone here with Orhcid Wiz might chime in & give you the info you seek too. Can you post a pic of your new plant? That would tell us a lot more regarding the droopy leaves & the spot you're concerned about.

sandy Wouldn't argue the point lol My house is surrounded with water birds and though you can't help but see them have never studied their habits. Might work at least for a while lol. The worst for me was Green Herons.King fishers. The trick was to have fish so large they couldn't catch them.. Din't work on Anhingas or Ospreys at all . The best was deep water right up to the edge. Pool close to the house ,large fish, night lights.. Didn't work on raccoons or oppossums lol. My "trick" was to give up Koi or Goldfish and switch to tropical fish. The birds and other varments still get them but they multiply way faster than they can eat lol. With nets I had a similar experience as Min. Caught several song birds. Might add that the worst predator of all was two boys .lol took several days to catch them. Hey if it works ,Worth a shot lol gary

The best thing you can do for pond fish is to give them plenty of plants for hiding, and to add some simple structures in the deepest part of the pond. One good idea is to lay a length of terra cotta pipe or even large PVC pipe in the middle of the pond. Terra cotta is nicer looking and will eventually get enough algae,etc, on it to blend in. A large flower pot turned on its side will help, too. But the pipe helps a lot. Fish will scoot right in there when being threatened by raccoons, etc. They could probably even hide from an anhinga in there. White Birds 101: The largest white wading bird in your part of the state is the great egret. He will tower over the other white birds, being nearly as big as a great blue heron. The smaller white waders will usually be either immature little blue herons (grayish beak with a dark tip) or snowy egrets, who have bright yellow feet. That makes them pretty easy to ID. Then you have white ibis, with long downcurved pink beaks, and cattle egrets, who are the shortest of them all, and seen more often in pastures and along the roads. And there you have it. That's everybody except wood storks which are HUGE and have massive blackish beaks and heads, and aren't easily confused with anything else. Anna, your green heron picture is beautiful! Some time back, these were called Little Green Herons (we always said it was because they had very little green on them, haha). But then they dropped the "little" for some reason. They are very clever and adaptable little birds. I used to watch one at the Periwinkle Trailer Park swan pond on Sanibel Island who had perfected the art of fishing with the pelletized bird food. He would take a couple of pellets out of the dish, go over to the water's edge and drop them in. Then he just waited for the all the little fishies to come nibble at the floating food. He had his technique perfected and was a very successful fisherbird. You both have such lovely natural areas in your yards, where you can really enjoy nature when you garden! I swear, I'm going to get my horse trough next month, for sure. It will make a perfect birthday present. And then I can at least have a few goldfish and a lotus or two. Marcia

Love the cuckoos too. Most of the locals here call them rain crows since the myth has it that they call before a storm. They do have an odd call. CCox, you think it's a sad one? I don't know, it always reminds me of sitting in a fishing boat with my dad years and years ago. A cuckoo would do its cuk cuk cuk ca ca kow kow kow thing and dad would say, There's a rain crow, gonna be good fishing today. Never seemed to really have a bearing on the good or bad of the trip but the call still reminds me of those days on the water with him. I discovered a nest on a rather low branch of a tree here years ago. For days all I would see was a bird butt sticking out one side, and from where I was standing it looked almost like a dove's tail but not quite. Then one day I saw the cuckoo fly to the nest. I'd never seen one before and was delighted but unfortunately I never did see a brood. We had a series of strong storms and had to bring in one of our tractors to clean up the snapped off trees. The stack with all its hot fumes and roaring deisel engine were still not enough to make that bird leave the nest and after the cleanup was done a tail could still be seen jutting out of the flimsy nest. Too bad the chicks never appeared. I always assumed a snake was responsible.