We had the same problem last year within a couple of months of building our first pond. I actually saw a heron land on our garage roof days after a comet came up missing...and I live on a busy street in the city! Forunately it did not get any of the 3 koi, but still :( We immediately went out and got a net to cover the pond and then bought a couple of "scarecrows" that are motion activated "water shooters". Although the net is not the most pleasant looking feature of the pond, we remove it when we have a day off and feel the fish are a lot safer while we are at work. The scarecrows had the added effect of detering stray cats from taking up residence in the yard!

The ripples on the Blue Angel are set off so nicely by the smooth water. Everything looks fabulously happy! I wish I could have a pond. I was told by a friend that raccoons and Great Blue Herons will wipe out the koi in a pond. Her pond was raided by a heron, who went on to clean out everyone's pond in the neighorhood. Naughty bird! (but oh so cool-looking) We have both raccoons and herons around here, so I guess I can't have a little fishy pond. boo hoo.

Great Blue Herons make me think what it must have been like to have a pteradactyl fly overhead during prehistoric times. It is always a thrill to see them. Here, they fly from the nearby lake to the many reservoir ponds in our area, and are commonly seen early morning & at dusk. I recently had the extra treat of seeing 2 males solving a disagreement by having a flying, swooping chase thru the neighborhood. Incidently, the sound made by a Great Blue Heron resembles a "bark" more so than a "honk"

I spy with my little eye.......... Mama has been a very sneaky girl - trying to confuse us with a second nest (and doing a good job I might say!) We left the box alone for a few days - no peeking inside as we didn't want to risk spooking them just in case they were still planning on using it. This morning Hubby was outside 'talking' to the birds....when he spied Mama on the fence. He backed away into the house at which point we crawled (literally) to a window close by and slowly eased open the blind. Mama edged cautiously towards the nest and hopped in. I proceeded to stand guard and watched for 25 mins. Just as I was beginning to feel stupid...(i.e. thinks to self "why am I watching an empty box, she obviously flew out while I glanced away....") who should pop her head out and then fly to the tree! Needless to say we were excited -- we could only imagine her doing 1 or 2 things for 25 mins in there. ANYHOO ---- we waited til this evening to take a peek. It's very difficult to get the camera in for a good shot as the nest is so high and add to that it has been so windy we didn't want to open the box too far and have the wind disturb the nest. We could see one egg very clearly but think there may be three. It's very hard to see on the pic but you should be able to make out at least one AND of course, the snake skin.... she's got quite a bit of it in there. The pic below is just of one side of the nest from directly facing the front....lots of feathers, plastic, and snake skin you can just make out at the back...and by the animal hair which has been moved around.... We're sooooooo excited. Hopefully when this wind dies down we can try again... maybe tomorrow evening. We don't want to check too often but will keep this updated for those interested. Back to our Blues, it seems they're starting to drop the odd pine needled in a different box so fingers crossed. We're having fun watching the babies learn to fend for themselves right now!! Watched one of the 'boys' find himself a nice looking bug yesterday only to have Dad jump in a steal it from him.... awwww~~~