After returning from vacation we made a scary discovery: A pond nearly devoid of fish. About 15 koi and goldfish were swimming in our front-yard pond when we departed, but only two fish appeared when I threw in food the morning after our return. Clearly, something terrible happened there. We suspect a blue heron. The Chattahoochee River, which runs through Atlanta, is a heron magnet. And the big birds have discovered homeowner ponds, of which there are many. My next door neighbor, the owner of a PR firm, lost all her fish. A couple weeks ago my wife and I stopped on our walk to watch a blue heron swallowing fish and maybe tadpoles in a runoff pond at an intown apartment and condo complex. Before that, I stared in amazement out our back window one afternoon as a heron sat in our neighbor's tree. We hope our missing fish are just really good at hiding and not some urban wader's lucky find.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Troubled waters
After returning from vacation we made a scary discovery: A pond nearly devoid of fish. About 15 koi and goldfish were swimming in our front-yard pond when we departed, but only two fish appeared when I threw in food the morning after our return. Clearly, something terrible happened there. We suspect a blue heron. The Chattahoochee River, which runs through Atlanta, is a heron magnet. And the big birds have discovered homeowner ponds, of which there are many. My next door neighbor, the owner of a PR firm, lost all her fish. A couple weeks ago my wife and I stopped on our walk to watch a blue heron swallowing fish and maybe tadpoles in a runoff pond at an intown apartment and condo complex. Before that, I stared in amazement out our back window one afternoon as a heron sat in our neighbor's tree. We hope our missing fish are just really good at hiding and not some urban wader's lucky find.
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Move over Marsden Hartley!!!
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