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Well, after thinking my fish had progressed to the deeper end of the pond to winter-over, I thought Sunday would be a good day to clean out the pond and freshen the water now that the weather has warmed a little so that beginnings of summer will be less hard work and hey! 6 fish missing.

My original pond of 12 assorted goldfish and 1 koi are now 6 assorted goldfish & 1 koi. Feral cat (nah, the dogs would have it), another black snake (nah, it couldn't eat that many so quickly & besides all the others would have heard what happened to the last snake that ate a goldfish at my place); kookaburra (nope, they don't like my dogs either)

What happened - No racoons here (country house in Australia). Huuuum - well I thought the darn Currawongs were only eating the dog food but boy was I wrong.
This morning I noticed a very engrossed Currawong sitting on the edge of the deep end of the pond contemplating the surface of the water.

Useless dogs I have also obviously

Any ideas anyone has would be greatly appreciated (ones that might work in keeping away the magpies and butcherbirds also so that the little finches and wrens don't have to drink with one eye up to the sky)

Thanks all,
Deb


In wildness, nature is not human-hearted!

netting? a fountain to break the wwater surface to make fishing harder?

i feel for ya, we lost 3 finches to butcherbirds a few years back... well, really we only lost their heads... straight thru the cage bars. They are very clever hunters.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I use an electric dog fence to keep out herons and the nieghborhood cats. My dogs are also useless for this. I don't know how big magpies are. If they are smaller than herons it might work if you keep the bottom strand of the fence low and close to the pond edge. I like the fence because it does not obscure the pond like a net would.

Thanks guys,
Dolf - I use an electric fence to stop my dogs from getting out of the fence yard after rabbits & kangaroos

Magpies are about the same size as I guess a small crow and a Currawong slightly bigger, maybe like a raven.

Like Call says, just like the butcherbird, clever hunters (grrrr). I might try the fence idea though and they'd only need a zap or two & maybe not come back to the area for a good while.

Cheers,
Deb

In wildness, nature is not human-hearted!