Pond
An ornamental pond is a stocked feeding station.
Herons, raccoons, and kingfishers find garden ponds quickly. Depth and cover are the only durable answers.
A shallow, clear pond holding slow ornamental fish is easier hunting than any natural water. Great Blue Herons work a circuit of ponds across a neighbourhood and remember each one. Raccoons hunt the margins by touch at night.
What you are hearing
Fish gone with no other sign, in daylight, is usually a heron. Disturbed plants, muddy water, and losses overnight suggests raccoons. Frogspawn and small amphibians disappearing is normal predation and is not worth fixing.
What to do
- 01Provide depth: a section at least two feet deep with steep sides gives fish somewhere to be.
- 02Add cover — pipes, an overhang, or dense planting — so fish are never in the open.
- 03Use a temporary net or a line of low stakes around the margin during a run of losses.
- 04Move feeding to a spot where fish are not visible from the bank.
What not to do
- Do not harass or attempt to trap herons; they are federally protected.
- Do not overstock a shallow pond and expect it to hold.
- Do not use decoy herons as a long-term measure; they are quickly ignored, and can attract others.
Stopping it happening again
- Design depth and cover in from the start rather than adding deterrents later.
- Accept a share of losses as the cost of a pond in a landscape with wildlife in it.
- Keep pond edges planted; open lawn to water’s edge is the easiest possible approach.
When to call someone licensed
Not applicable. Herons are protected and cannot be removed.
Find a rehabilitatorUnderstand the animal
A Great Blue Heron standing in a garden pond at six in the morning is a genuinely remarkable animal, and it is worth watching before it is discouraged.