Hi Anna, I understand about the electric fence. You don't want to discourage all the wildlife that comes to your pond. How about encouraging all your neighbors to get ponds too, so that the otters can take turns at the various ponds!? Your pond sounds great. Do you have any pictures you could share? I have no idea how aggressive or shy otters are. Have you ever seen those motion-detector scarecrows that shoot water out when they sense motion? They probaby would scare away other creatures too though. Well, maybe this "attack" was a one-time occurence. That would be nice. Would the otters come from just one direction? Is there a way of putting up some sort of trip-wire that would activate an alarm in your house, so you could at least try to scare them off, if they showed up again? Are they mostly active in the day or night? Surely there are other people around with ponds who have the same problem, who might be able to give you suggestions? At least its not alligators!

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

Goodness, Liz, after schlepping the 300f2.8 on a two hr. hike this past weekend to see golden eagles my shoulders were shot for a few days, I cannot imagine ~hand-holding~ the 500mm (and in fact after seeing how sore I was with the 300, decided against purchasing the 500mm)....and then I see your images and know why I wanted one LOL. Amazing you photographed a pileated in flight, and I'm so envious,I've been trying to find my local barred owl for the past two years. Thanks so much for sharing your images! Debi in NY

Probably a little blue heron. In real life they look very dark all over, not the reddish purple in the field guides.