Waaaaa :(

[FlutterChin]

I came home today to fine a great blue herring eating my baby turtles in my pond...I am devistated! They are protected and I am being told there is nothing I can do but string up a net or a bit of mylar tape.....
How can I stop them...I have more turtles due to be here this week.

[Jackie Ramo]

Honestly, netting is the best thing. The scarecrow motion detector water spray thing sometimes works but netting always works. If you are home and have a dog they usually move on but if there is opportunity once they have found food they are pretty determined.

Sorry for your losses.

[Busy B]

Sorry Flutter..

[Dave in Innisfil]

I discourage herons from buffeting in our pond with bamboo torches set around the pond, especially in their flight and landing paths. Something about them not liking anything disturbing their wings during landings, or so I was told. Others, I'm told, have found success by encircling their pond with wire, rope or fishing line set a foot above the ground, some adding shiny tin pie plates fluttering in the breeze.

My personal favourite is to add a little pellet of lead to their tail feathers, followed by a generous helping of German Shepherds. Our heron used to come between 5 and 6 am unfortunately. At that time, my aim isn't the steadiest (as per one hole in doggie's wading pool), and my neighbors alarm clocks haven't gone off yet. It only took a few morning interuptions of its buffet to move it on down the lake to less guarded ponds.

My sympathies to your losses.....the kingfisher mangled another fish this morning while I was walking the dogs. Could be worse, could be pelicans or cormorants.

[luke frisbee]

monofilament 40lb strung around the pond about 8 ft in the air....they use it at Disneyworld to keep the seagulls out of the outside food areas.

[Merlin]

Herons in my neck of the woods are a protected bird too :mad: , ok I have to say that they have a right to eat and feed their young too :wink: just wish that they would leave my fish alone. Herons are a wading bird so anything that you can do to stop them getting near to your pond is an advantage. Fishing line strung at around 12" around the pond edges, will be a deterent.

[Dave in Innisfil]

Herons and most wading birds here are protected provincially here too, but
we live in a somewhat rural area where conservation officers tend to overlook predation control of crops and livestock. It's not uncommon to hear the snap of multiple .22 calibre riflefire on garbage days in our subdivision too. I agree that animals have a right to survival, but past personal experiences with bass and trout ponds tend to form somewhat a level of bias when something is preying upon my more intimate koi ponds. Although I'm also waging a personal war on the snapping turtles in Phishi's pond, I sympathize with Flutter's loss of her pet turtles. I'd have painted turtles in my ponds if I didn't already know the kind of damage they could incurr. We return every paint we catch in Phishi's pond, at her request. Their takings of her koi she deems acceptable, in comparison with the unreasonable consumption demands of several 50lb + snapping turtles, which according to provincial game laws we aren't legally allowed to pursue after next Thursday.

Or then, maysbe some of us jest ain't as civilized as ya'll........

:lol:

[Dave in Innisfil]

Each year I "help" dozens of turtles cross this busy highway, just west of Norland. They lay their eggs in the soft gravel shoulders, and the hatchlings sometimes litter the roads.