My immediate dislike for the Grey Heron

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't blame them all, I mean, it was just ONE bird, but well, he made me mad. Randy was home with a sick Delaney on Monday and I ended up working late, so it was dark by the time I made it home. In the middle of our a discussion, he goes, OH, there was a PELICAN in your pond today. He went out, scared him away, scooped two fish back into the pond (Randy did, not the pelican) and then came back inside. There was a quick description of the bird and it was decided it was a grey heron, not a pelican - something i've never seen around our lake norman. Herons yes, Pelican's, not so much. Thankfully it was getting dark so said bird left for the night. I was heartbroken. It sounds silly but I am very attached to my fish. Those poor fish, all nice and fat and ready for winter hibernation - and never having a predator near them ever before - they didn't stand a chance. Well, I grabbed the flashlight and went to see if I could get a fish count. I counted 6. My heart went back to normal - sort of. I could deal with half, it was better than none. The next morning as i am leaving to take Gabriel to school, in swoops the bird. I stormed in one door and back out the other to scare it away and told Randy he was not to MOVE from his bird watch point until I got back. As i left, i noticed the oh so lovely bird perched on our roof, scoping out his breakfast. When I got back, we searched for something suitable to put over the pond to protect my beloved fish. We settled on the screen from our gazebo - it was torn at the bottom and bound for the trash can - but it was an instant winner in the keep the heron away from the bird job. So, we draped and secured and watched and waited. A short time later I saw the heron up on our shed - just looking down as if to try and figure out how to get by the new protection. Thankfully he gave up and left. I am hoping he doesn't come back. As a post script - I was out checking on the pond tonight and it looks like I need to go out and scoop one out - one of the big ones that Randy scooped back in from where the bird had dragged it out :o( Poor thing - we tried.

As for me, I used to think of these birds as magestic, even pretty, now, well, if it wasn't for the fact that someone mentioned a very large fine, I'd be tempted to at least do in one of them.

On the flip side - Gabriel will be happy to get a large group of new feeder fish for his tank. We go and "save" some feeder fish - put them in his tank until they get some size on them - and then they go out into our pond - helps keep our population steady as some of my fish have started to age, and well, now we have this. And Gabriel will be happy - his orange and white one made it.