By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia

Jack Bazemore carefully rigs a series of ropes and soda cans
around the fountain in his backyard koi pond. He gingerly sets
his trap. A fish thief is on the loose in Bazemore’s Roswell,
Ga., neighborhood.

“I think if he bumps into this rope,” Bazemore says, pointing
out the best trap a 7-year-old imagination can dream up, “he’ll
make these cans rattle. It will either scare him off or alert
us that he’s here.”

The thief isn’t a bad guy, really. He’s a two-legged robber on
a mission to eat Jack’s koi.

“My mom spotted him first. But then I saw him, too,” he
says. “He flew right over our fence and was sitting way up on
top of our house. Just watching.”

He’s not your average thief.

He’s a heron.

Heron horrors

“Herons are a very big problem in Georgia,” says Tony Johnson,
a horticulturist for the University of Georgia Research and
Education Garden in Griffin, Ga. “There are horror stories.”

At the UGA garden he manages, he’s all but given up on having
fish in the water gardens. Herons are too persistent.

“Just the other day I was mowing grass and here he comes, using
the turf plots as a landing strip,” Johnson says. “I turned off
the mower. As I stepped up the hill, he was sneaking down the
path headed to the pond to get my fish.”

Georgians like young Bazemore and experts like Johnson find
herons a nuisance. Some, however, find them an expensive
pest.

“The people who get upset are the ones with real expensive
koi,” Johnson says. “They can eat some pretty big fish.”

It’s not just missing fish that make herons unwelcome. They can
wreck a pond.

“They aren’t always efficient hunters,” Johnson says. “They
spear the fish. If you find scissor-like double stab holes in
your pond liner, it was probably a heron that missed the fish.
They can destroy a liner and really mess up a pond.”

The main problems in these parts are blue herons and green
herons, but they aren’t alone. “Hawks can be a problem for pond
owners, too,” Johnson says.

Signs of trouble

There are ways to tell, Johnson says, if herons are sneaking
around, besides the obvious (missing fish):

Skittish fish. If fish are skittish or hide more than
usual, that’s a good indicator that a heron has been around.

Fish out of water. Fish will jump out of the water
occasionally. But don’t assume that’s what happened if you see
dead fish near your pond. Check for puncture wounds, the
telltale sign a bird is visiting.

Keep an eye out. Herons and other predators usually
visit in early morning or late evening when it’s quiet.

Sick fish. Even if birds don’t kill the fish, they can
wound them in hunting attempts, setting up conditions for the
fish to get diseases and die.

Protect fish by building a few hiding spots like overturned
pots or shelves made of rocks that they can escape to. “You can
cover the pond with fish netting,” Johnson says. “It’s a real
pain, but it does keep leaves out of the pond, too.”

Any time, anywhere

Herons are very active right now in Georgia. But they’re common
from early spring through summer and into late fall.

“It’s a widespread problem and a topic of discussion at pond
talks,” Johnson says. “I doubt I’ve ever done a talk that
someone hasn’t asked me about them.”

The protected herons usually land on large pond or lake banks
and eat frogs and fish. But some ornamental water gardens are
hard to pass up.

“If they’re flying over and see a small, shallow pond full of
nice fish, it’s like putting up a neon sign that
flashes ‘Buffet. Open 24 Hours,’ ” Johnson quips.

For now, Jack Bazemore’s buffet is closed. Picked clean.