A Blue Heron got a peck at my Koi a few weeks ago but I luckily came outside to find it out of the pond, I quickly ran over, picked it up and placed it back in the water. He is still alive and was doing fine until the same thing happened this morning! Unfortunately, he got pecked a bit harder a couple times on the head above the eye toward the gill. I again, ran over picked him up and put him back in the water, only this time, he has not recovered as well. After reading some forums on www.koi phen.com/forums I put him in a container, put some neosporin on the wound and put 5 drops on stress coat in there. He is such a Rambo! He is still "dazed" but looks at me when I walk up and is still breathing and moving his fins but he is ?lopsided? I am not sure that he will pull through... The other Koi didn't come up from the bottom of the pond until later this afternoon... poor things :(

I've battled probably the same heron for about 3 years. He comes in during winter through early spring. Always in the AM. I tried the fishing line, watched him circle and circle, army crawl through it and finally he flew up and crashed down in the middle of the pond in the deep water, like a duck. a big duck. They are persistent nasty things. I named mine Smaug, after the Hobbit dragon. This winter I went with a green house plastic over the main pond area, to keep him out and to keep the sub tropical fish alive. it worked. The day after I removed the plastic this spring, he showed up. The effective deterrents for me have been: 1. Me. Any movement in the house, the drapes open, I get up off the sofa, he sees me through the window and he's gone. Every time. The pond is about 50 feet back from the house. If i want to watch him, i HAVE to sit perfectly still inside the house; they have amazing eyesight. 2. Truck netting. I buy truck bungee netting on Amazon and stretch them out over the main pond. It works pretty well and is a compromise from full fish netting, this way I can let the birds and the frogs in and out, the big birds have a harder time. This year I got the alligator head. It looks really good, moving with the current, like the real thing. Not sure it'll work for long but anything helps. I also put out a cheap radio on batteries, talk radio. I am also this year going to capitalize on movement. Since he always leaves when he sees anyone moving in the house, I bought a wemo device. I can power on or off, either from my smart phone or on a schedule, any electronic device. I hooked up a circulating fan to it, aiming it at my drapes. From the outside, it appears to be someone moving the drapes. Someone suggested going with one of those tube dancing things, the kind you see for advertising. I think it would work for a while. What I really want is a halloween witch i see on Amazon, its a motion or powered activated full standing prop. Its crouched down, and when activated stands to full height, makes noise, etc. that is something I could use on the back porch or in various places in the house where it would be seen. I also have a Foscam camera, with audio. I've yet to catch the heron on the motion sensor, but having the ability to tie in anytime, anywhere is very powerful. I would not go without having an IP based camera to monitor, even if its just a passive device, knowledge is everything.

Well, yesterday I decided to go a little deeper with my investigations and set off for the new nest site with binocs and the spotting scope. I hate messing with the tripod, and it's tough to be able to quickly pan left to right if something nmoves, but boy you feel like you are right next to your subject!! I was in for yet another surprise. Sure enough, a single eagle was poking around on the ground after something when I got there. The bird continued for a short time, flew up to the nest, and then began climbing up into a thermal . Immediately after this, I spotted the second bird rising up from a group of trees to the north, following the first. I hadn't been able to see this other bird so I was excited to see both were around. I had my sister on the cell phone giving her the details when the third bird appeared. I was certainly not expecting this. The three were rising incredibly fast...the first two were already small specks, and I had quit following them with the binocs. By the time I noticed the third eagle joining them, it was too late to say for sure if it had the white head and tail, but I think I did make this detail out before it got too high. Not being 100% certain, I can't say whether it was a juvenile or an adult. At first I tried to tell myself it had to be a turkey vulture, but there was no mistaking it and it soon caught up with the first two as they drifted off to the west. But what the heck was a third bird doing at the nest site? I guess I have questions for an eagle specialist....I think I read that they are monogamous. Was this a hopeful interloper? Maybe the other nest two miles away has a male that swings....How long does the chick (chicks if it's a really good year) from a single season hang around after it fledges? And of course, this wasn't last year's bird at all if it already had the white feathers. I guess one thing that needs to be done is to atake out the old nest back at the highway and see if there's a white head hunkered down in there. It's possible we have been missing the activity and sitting is already taking place. Later, two of the three birds did return to the nest, with one sitting on the nest itself and the other taking up a post at the perimeter. Then it got too dark for the scope and I decided to pack up and head home. So , the story continues!! BTW, several people stopped to see what I was doing, and a few of them were people I know who live right across the field from the nest/s. I managed to get some good info from several of the ones who stopped. Amazingly, the couple who live closest to the site thought the smaller nests were swan's, and had not even noticed the huge monster so out of place there in the middle of them. When I told them it was an eagle nest and that there was a bird on the nest right now and held out the binocs, they just said how nice and drove off. Before they left though, I did ask them if they could recall what month the herons had been coming back to the nests, and they said closer to April. That was the time of year when we first found the rookery, and the leaves were just coming on. Then another fellow pulled up, and seemed a bit more interested. As it turned out, he had just been in charge of logging this same area last year (yippee) and decided at the last minute to leave the few big trees right around the site. He said you could walk right up underneath it all (although the mess and the ruckus was unbelieveable)and they didn't even seem to notice. Then in the fall they just vanished. He thought something bad must have happened but I wonder if they didn't just fledge and move on. so that's the story for now.

I noticed a similar bird in the background that has very black legs. Is that how you made the distinction? I'm sure there were other marks that you looked at. It is a beautiful bird and your pictures are wonderful. Thank you for sharing.