Thanks for fast responses. Annaca, the stream runs 24/7/365, except for 3 weeks last winter when the hose blew off the pump while it was unseen under ice. The pond therefore completely sealed over. I was impressed that the fish survived anyway although that is probably not news to you northerners. I have a Laguna 2400gph that claims to only be 100 watts. I have not verified the wattage though I probably could and should check it. I suspect that I may still have a little waterfall spillage because I am losing an inch every 3 days or so. When i was diagnosing leak sources and diverted water from the filter AND the top two feet of the stream, I found almost no losses in several days (perhaps 1/4 inch) Horton, I was hoping you would say something like your response. goodkarma et. al. I would love to show pics. One of these days I will learn to set up a Fliker or whatever account. I see your point about water addition/nutrients. I am on a well but I also have an extra pond that I call my resevette that collects roof and french drain runoff instead of using rain barrels. It is mainly for irrigation but I often top off with the resevette water. It sometimes has suspended mud etc. Although it looks tolerable coming out of the hose, it looks pretty brown sitting in the resevette. It doesn't seem to even temporarily cloud up the pond which again says good things about the stream where I add the topoff water. But it sure could add extra nutrients and while I was diagnosing I didn't need as much water and I think I was mainly using the well anyway. ccoombs, I like your cleaning design. Im lazy and haven't tried to clean the pond bottom. I have blasted hose water or even the power washer into the stream to clean that and again it cleans up in 15 minutes or so.

I have to laugh at Natteringninny's solution because I once managed a Radio Shack that sold a remarkable number of those devices to teenagers and also because I remember the cover that graced one issue of Organic Gardening during the too short leadership of Mike Mcgrath. Visualize all the various garden varmints in various stages of panic, when having tripped that motion sensor they are greeted by the dulcet tones of the voice of conservative radio, Rush Limbaugh, at full volume! LOL! That issue vanished more than once to be returned later to my mailbox. If Rush doesn't do it perhaps some polka music would do. Sandy

Hi Lisa, Thats an amazing story about the grackles! Though, it doesnt surprise me much because Ive seen similar smart behavior from them and from Curve-billed Thrashers. Both of them seem to be very smart birds. Thereve been studies on crows that show they make tools, make plans to figure out problems, and so on. IIRC, they were at least around 3-4 year old human level in thinking. Most humans would be surprised by that! Especially my mother-in-law-to-be whom called grackles "junk birds" which I found shocking as a concept. I understand the worry over native vs. exotic species But "junk"?! When I first saw the flock of grackles last year, it was like the Hitchcock movie The Birds! There were suddenly two decent sized trees totally black with grackles and they were all squawking about something. I thought it might be a baby, went out to see, and though most of them flew to a safer distance, a few did stay to see what I was doing. I didnt find a baby but they left shortly after with me none-the-wiser to what they were going on about :P I just want you to know, Im not anti-grackle. I love all creatures, though I did kill a couple of Black Widows last year, I usually move insects that scare me :) Either that or encourage them to go elsewhere. When we had a HUGE ants nest in our walkway, (the giant black ants that bite), I started putting sunflower seeds down so the doves would keep the area busy. The ants soon moved, taking some sunflower seeds with them! Id read to pour boiling water down the hole but thats just horrible to me. Anyway, most of our tadpoles are gone, so Im not going to net the pond. Since the grackles bully the other birds we got some big bowls and put them on the other side of the yard and moved our birdbaths into the shade over there, too. The other birds have found them and seem grateful. The weather here is *so* harsh, and with drought even worse. There really is a desperate need for water. It would be nice if it didnt draw *every* cat within 10 block radius since they sometimes kill birds. Its so heartbreaking :( But since we have the shadiest yard with the most water for at least a one-mile radius, we probably get the worst of it. Totally off topic, but now thinking about it, before we took in our cat that was abandoned (in the desert! in the summer! ugh humans!) the cat situation was a lot worse. He is *completely crazy* and tries our patience to the absolute limit, daily, and now has to be kept in until after sunset because he was killing birds Probably because he cant get over being abandoned and starving. He will fight any cat over his "territory," even our other semi-feral cat we found here years ago. This drives us mad, but maybe his craziness has paid off for us in the other cats killing birds area as weve had fewer cats hanging around probably not wanting to deal with him! Take care, -A

Chas.. Yes, they do look like the ones on the GEICO commmercial except mine are MUCH fatter because they have such wonderful plants to eat. hahaha I laughed myself silly the first time I saw that commercial. Really I love them, especially the babies, but it is funny to see morning glory vines with no leaves as far as the little critters can climb and blossoms at just the very top of the vine. Also squash and tomatoes with bites taken out of them are delightful surprises. In addition to the woodchucks, my sweet BF is now scalping the morning glory vines to feed a neighbor's pet rabbit. I gave up on sweet potato vines. The woodchucks go into some kine of rapture when I plant them. I swear they have learned to levitate to get plants they like. Anne