Stallarich writes she has problems with herons so I have had a look what the RSPB says

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/...herons.asp

But if I was netting a pond I would make a frame with canes ot metal poles and fasten the net around the top of frame and leave the sides free of the net so other creatures can bath and drink in the water.

Bless you Roger and thank you for that
Roger, we made a frame last year to put the net on, a few inches off the ground, thinking it would be easier to put on and off but had to keep changing it as the plants grew, and the Heron still managed to get to the fish We tried the plastic Heron replica, but as it says on the RSPB site, that seemed to attract them!
This year we had the net on canes, like you suggested, but the Toads seemed to have a problem with it, even though they could get in the side they wanted to come out in the middle, hence the poor one we found tangled and dead yesterday.
I've seen photos of Karen's pond with bamboo canes that she leaves on all year, it is worth considering but it looks so much nicer without a cover on it!
In hindsight, we should never have put fish in and should have kept it as a wildlife pond but too late now we have them!
We've not seen the Heron this year, but I'm sure he'll come back if he discovers an open pond! I wouldn't mind so much if he just ate the fish, but some are quite big now and last time he raided it he threw 3 fish out and just left them as I think they were too big for him to eat!

Well, the net had been off all of 24 hours, the cat was looking worried at the back door, looked out and here he is, the net is back on now I've raised it a bit, it's on bamboo canes about 6 inches off the ground all the way round!

He was just so cool, didn't even flinch just walked away!


I've got a few more photos, not sure what thread to put them on OH was shouting 'don't stand there taking pictures, chase him off!'

that made me laugh!
He looks almost plastic himself to me, hope you find something that works

Handsome young fella!

I've got to say that not adding fish is the best way to avoid heron conflict, having said that they prefer frogs anyway so it's no guarantee. Nets are the best solution, although the sprinkler systems with an infra-red sensor are great as long as you remember to turn them on after you've turned it off to avoid a soaking if you're working in the garden. Plastic herons work if you aim them right but unless you're throwing one it doesn't do much.

Goldfish never get too big for herons to swallow (they can take 12" carp) so unless you saw one discard a caught fish I'd suspect something else and there's only one predator common in gardens that doesn't need to eat what it catches