Johnkr that is very interesting information about the eagles hunting the herons. I had no idea, thanks! That might explain why I have not seen any around. We do live by a lot of natural water. Well that's one thing in favor of eagles. Carol I just googled scarecrow like you suggested and found the info. Thank you. I can see how that would be very effective. I can also see my Malamute playing in it! LOL It sounds like you have lived in some wonderful places. I would love to live by the sea some day. Sounds great just saying it. hehe Sandy I imagine your very correct about some critters liking the scarecrows. My silly Mal for one. LOL She loves to play "chase the hose" whenever I water. Nancyd I believe you are very correct about the cats safety. These are big birds. This was the closest one had come to the house. In the pictures you will see how a pergola is going to be a challenge to say the least. The pond runs 40ft by 20 with a bend at one end. Carol thanks for asking me to brag... I mean post pics. We only got the pond running last fall so I am still pretty excited about it. I also included a link to an older post on the Cottage garden forum if you are interested in some "extreme" ponding/gardening or as I like to think of it, "when I should have been shot on the spot for even thinking of it." This is one end of the pond. I had to take two shots to get the opposite end. I have just begun working on this new falls area. I still have to trim the foam and disquise the liner and tubing here. I put a planter pocket on top of the rock and planted trailing plants so that should help. This is the little pond, it is 100gal. Thank you all very much, LeSan Here is a link that might be useful: Ground Zero

I guess it's possible that one of them has fledged. Yesterday while I was watching one was flapping his wings like mad. I'm guessing they return to the nest and hang out as a family.

Hi Laurelin and All! I read about the BE that frequents the Park Diner near the downtown area in Binghamton. Have you ever tried seeing one there? I fished the Rockbottom Dam as a kid and can easily understand why this area would be such a great place for a BE to forage for fish. Although I have a boat my son and I came across a BE while fishing from a shore area last year. We fished there at least once or twice a week and at first it would fly away and then we realized if we carefully came upon the area it would stay. We could get within less than 150 feet away at times and although their diet is more of the dead fish variety I swear it would sit there thinking, "How in the heck are these guys catching all of those Fish?" One day it flew about 20 to 25' over my head. My son couldn't believe it. I told him it was checking out the tackle I was using :>)

well, that's me, kinda.....the nest is about two linear miles from here, so it's almost my backyard. A neighbor said he saw one of them getting harrassed by "chicken hawks" the other day right here over our woods. I never did find out if he meant "chicken hawk"-kestrel, or "chicken hawk" red-tailed hawk, or what, which bugs me since the term is loosely applied to any bird of prey hereabouts. I've seen the red-tails take a swipe at them, but it's always while they are on the wing. I will have to check out that link--thanks for posting it!!