heron attacks !

My friend has been plagued with heron attacks lately, carrying off his little fish. So he has bought a scarer which fires a jet of water when something walks across it's path. Fingers crossed it will work. Anyone tried one ? I have tried lots of things in the past including plastic herons, even letting the moggy out at the crack of dawn when attacks seem more likely. This pic is of a heron attack on a koi I had many years back. What looks like a water bubble on the orange koi's back is a neat little hole caused by a herons beak ! I just caught the heron striking the koi and managed to scare it off.
gazania

 

We put chicken wire over our pond after one took about 3/4 of our fish. Ponds are like a McDonald's to them......... fast food.

 

Commonly called a "scare crow"

I would never buy one.

Can't be used in hose pipe ban.
Doesn't work when battery goes flat.
Doesn't always work.
Doesn't work if hose is frozen (Pond not frozen over)

Only way to stop herons is to net the pond.

Always reminds me of the following clip

 

Yes, the ultimate guard is netting over the pond I guess. With a ground level pond it's so easy for the heron to just stroll in. Out of ground ponds are a little better but even then, the heron attack above was in an out of ground pond with a 4ft wall, and 7ft deep ! Some koi can be very friendly and will approach anything the side of the pond if it thinks it will get a feed. There is the old story of using a plastic heron as they are supposed to be territorial birds. The story goes the guy looks out his window and see's a real heron trying to mate with the plastic one
I agree, the scarer will be hit and miss. But it has given my friend lots of laughs as he intentionally forgets to tell people as they enter the garden.
gazania

 

I put some bamboo canes in amongst the plants to disguise them and then wound cat gut round them at 6" intervals ....so it doesn't look too noticeable....it's worked so far

 

After having a pond with fish for many years and having no real heron problem, it has struck this year.
My fish are now so shy, they dont come to the surface like they used to and spend most of the time hiding under the weed.

Last winter I lopped a fairly large tree which was getting too big and overhanging most of the garden, pond included.

I can only guess that that tree was deterring herons from landing, due to the difficulty in getting airbourne again in the slightly cramped area.

I'm not prepared to net the pond, I get rid of it first.
A netted pond, in my opinion, looks awful and I cant see the point in having it.

Recently I've started putting potted plants around the edges of the pond, not ideal, it still looks odd, but it appears to be working.

 

I hope the cat didnt mind , I have them on the river the family of Ravens hate them and have a right go at them , two houses ago the Magpie's used to get the little baby one's.

Spruce