There are white herons BTW. Egrets are smaller than white herons. I use a black bird net bought at Wal-mart. I pounded six 24" rebar, 3 to a side. I then put black plastic piping over the rebar to it arches over the pond. On top of that I stretched the netting and secured it with electrical zip fasteners in various places. I can lift the whole thing off or just one end if I need to access part of the pond and slip it right back on when done. I live in Great Blue Heron land and they fly over my house at any time. After a few years of no fish being eaten I thought I'd take it off and put up a double row of fencing on the edge and also strung fishing line in triple rows. It was not a day or two the heron came back and ate another fish, so I put my portable net back up. My net extends beyond the edges of the pond by about 12 to 18 inches but is open by about 12" so frogs can move in and out safely and also birds. Herons won't duck under it. From nancyd: "Use bird netting - it's virtually undetectable and cheap. I've purchased decorative four foot posts and stretch the netting over them so that it hangs 3/4 of the way down the posts. This allows birds, toads and frogs access to the pond without getting caught in it. Easy to pull off when you need to. The only thing I've sacrificed are dragonflies. They don't like flying under the net unfortunately. We have not lost a single fish since we put up the netting." I like the idea of using decorative poles so I may switch out my black tubing. The black netting is invisible from not so far away from the pond, but I can see my piping even though it looks OK I'd rather not see much at all. I'd like this to go straight across with no hanging down and take it out beyond the pond edge right up to the pondside plantings. I think I would like it to be 12" off the top of the water and pulled very tight. Thanks for the idea Nancy!

Well, this happens to be the best view in my garden right now. It was late in the day and the lighting was so nice... such a pretty day. Of course, I didn't show you the parts of my yard that presently don't look that great and that still have a lot of filling in and maturing to do. Sounds like you all are seeing a lot of movement in your yards too! Did your butterflies seem to experience a population explosion after the rains? Sure seemed like it around here. I love listening to all the bird calls which are so prominent in the mornings. So much life out there right now. Regine, you had a possum living in your staghorn fern? The pink/red plants are iresine herbstine (bloodleaf). I am trying it out as a groundcover/edging to this bed and I really like the color punch. So far, so good, but it has only been there since late fall. The orange flower is justicia golden flame. It is the most visited hummingbird plant in my garden. I've only had a few, but that is what attracted them. Denise, I'm sure the other gold rims will find your dutchman's pipe soon, and then it will look bare! I have my begonia in dappled shade under that large oak. It is on a berm, so perfect drainage. I don't fertilize it except for a bit of compost or aged manure, and it gets watered once weekly with the sprinklers. Melissa, I have loads of bees too. They seem to be everywhere now. Yes, it is a pleasure to walk around and see what and who is happening. Laura, my garden is two and a half years old. The large trees were there, but the rest was started from scratch with cardboard and lasagna beds. You have made some incredible progress in your yard in less than a year. What a wonderful transformation it has been! It is quite beautiful already and I'm sure it will continue to fill in quickly. I have some cosmos seeds I need to plant. Thanks for reminding me. Anna

If I told anybody here locally I was going to go cook up a mess of "crawdads" they would probably give me a blank stare and take two steps back. Crawdads are mainly used for fishing bait but the further south you go the more you find they are human food as well. I just couldn't get over the big difference in size, although I guess it might be because the ones you find on menus tend to be farm raised. Or, maybe a lot of mass is lost in the cooking process. At any rate, It is not uncommon for me to come across 6-7 inch animals here, even in my yard, and at that size you tend to give the pincers a LOT more respect. Funny how culture has such a bearing on what is deemed "ok" to eat. I think a lot of possible food sources here in our country are totally overlooked simply because of stigma or taboo, although I admit it would take a bit of warming up on my part to bite into some of the insect selections I have heard about in other countries.

Great Scott! I almost missed these! Been so busy running around picking blackberries, taking photos, and swimming I've neglected checking the bird forum for your photos. Two of those would be "lifers" for me! How adorable can that baby Least Bittern get?!!