Question From a Concerned Reader – IOTW Report

Question From a Concerned Reader

Wednesday, 3 January 2018, 22:13 BFH Uncategorized 38

Can you forward this to the community?
I’ve been watching the blue herons on my totally frozen pond unable to get fish.
How can I help them not starve?
Ask for fish heads from the grocery?
Advice required.
-PHenry

38 Comments on Question From a Concerned Reader

  3. seriously though … this from the Chesapeake Bay Field Office …. “These waterbirds use a variety of different feeding methods to procure their primary diet of small fish, which they swallow head first. They also eat frogs, salamanders, lizards, snakes, crawfish, small birds, rodents and insects.”

  5. Minnesota has frozen ponds, rivers and lakes from December through February. There has never been a scarcity of blue herons in the 32 years I lived there. I don’t know what they do when the water is frozen, but I know they survive.

    I understand wanting to help. I don’t know if they need live fish or other critters, so maybe fish heads won’t work. Try a few and see if they go for them.

    Good luck!

  11. PHenry. Do not get within striking distance of them they will hit you with their beak and will aim for your face, keep your distance and give them raw fresh small fish not canned.
    Go to a bait shop if you have one near you.
    No lie they are mean and will go after you, had a friend that worked at a salmon,steelhead, trout hatchery and the Herons were bad news to deal with. Ate all the fingerlings that they could plus one.
    They strung 50 pound line above the ponds it was the only way to keep them from eating all of the trout,salmon and steelhead smolts.

  12. frankly, this is nothing more than setting out a bird feeder in back yard. The birds will congregate where the easiest food is to be found.
    same as the Polar Bears congregating at the Canadian refuse pile, instead of swimming 65 miles to get that seal meal

    … the question is: do we help the animals survive w/ easier access to meals, or do we hinder their natural inclinations of survival?

    … same w/ humans, huh?

  14. @Geoff C. The Saltine: Your observations have me wondering why anyone would want these mean, troublesome creatures to survive in the first place. Plus, from other comments here it seems obvious that they will do just fine with other food sources, anyway.

    Bottom line: Leave ’em alone and let Nature take its course.

  16. ‘The Tragedy of American Compassion’ … Marvin Olasky

    (the first couple of chapters are a bit boring .. owing to the obvious [if you are a true conservative student]… but it picks up in the later chapters)

  19. I suppose dynamite is out of the question. A nice charge under the ice would probably open a fishing hole for the birds.

    @Reboot

    Absolutely! Once you get away from our quaint notions of civilization, survival of the fittest is the only rule applicable.

  21. Herons, and cranes, would descend to feed from my koi pond. Big and scary.
    Scared me silly one early morning as I headed out for work.
    I told my family at dinner and Junior offered to shoot the intruder for me.
    Yes, I responded, and then you can visit your daddy at federal prison.

  22. My bet is providing handouts to them would create the same problem as handing out EBT cards. In the beginning it is appreciated charity, then it evolves into a demanded right.

  25. The Herons and Egrets survive up here in Maine without help. Ducks and other waterfowl too. Leave them be. Their natural instincts and hunger will push them to find food. If you start feeding them, they’ll become use to it and get lazy and if you or someone else isn’t feeding them, then they will die.

  28. Feeding them is (most likely) a violation of some Federal and/or State Law.
    It isn’t worth the harassment and expense.
    And, you could end up dead – MO Conservation maggots are armed.

    izlamo delenda est …

  29. Guy gets lost in the northern California redwoods. He is found a month later in great physical condition. When asked how he had survived, he said he was able to catch an eat a few spotted owls. The authorities considered charging him with killing an endangered species, then decided to take pity on him. Out of curiosity, they asked him what spotted owl tastes like. “Oh,” he said, “it’s somewhere between whooping crane and California condor.”

  31. our first winter in this house was harsh, to say the least – there were only three days of school in january, frinstance…..i wondered about the crows, they looked hungry….what do they eat, i wondered….

    all i could think of was old movies of bodies hanging in trees…..two little brats home from school all month…..hhhhmmmmmmmm…….

  33. The Gullah actually do eat great blue.
    They have a name of their own for just about everything, a blue heron is Old Joe.
    Haven’t eaten one, according to Crabman, they taste like fish.

  35. As to fish heads: My Asian wife and her buddies used to hit up the fishmongers at the local markets for the salmon and cod heads. They’d get them for about 15¢ per pound. Then the supermarkets caught on and the price spiked to about what the whole fish cost per pound. Good scam while it lasted, though.

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