The New Hiree

A Great Blue Heron came by our backyard fish pond several weeks ago and hung around for a few days. I first saw it one morning when I was getting ready for work and Best Wife saw it again two days later.



I'm sure the heron was intrigued by the twenty-odd fish on the menu. We have goldfish: Fan-tails and Comets in abundance though interspersed are a few Oranda genes. The O-gene is evidenced in a massive body size that eventually turns all white. The sources of the Oranda genes have passed on to that Great Carp Pond in the sky. The Orandas were a colossal mistake or rather a series of mistakes. First the two were sold to us as Ryukins. Ryukins might have been a good choice because they are hardy. Orandas on the other hand don't like cold water. Anything less than 60 degrees is out of the question. Our pond is at 40 degrees now as the weather in New Jersey has been mild this winter and has often been around 34 degrees and had 10 inches of ice a few years ago. Another reason the Orandas are a poor choice - in my humble opinion of course - is that many of them don't know how to swim. Sometimes called Flip-over condition, the poor fish becomes unable to maintain proper fishy position, i.e. anal fin lower than dorsal. The third mistake was allowing them to breed. But I digress.



The heron mentioned above was thwarted by the unlucky (or in our case, lucky) coincidence of arriving at the time of year when the pond is completely covered by netting to catch autumn leaves. Well the netting has to come off before winter or at least before the pond freezes over. So when a thin sheet of ice formed just before Thanksgiving, the netting reluctantly had to be put away.



What to do? What to do! When the raccoon began visiting the pond last summer to dig for earthworms in the bog around the pond, it was relatively easy to relocate the thief to a local park. But how to heron-proof the area was a real riddle. And, Best Wife said she would never forgive me, or the heron for that matter, if little Red-Cap ended up as heron sushi.



Enter the New Hiree. He has agreed to guard duty at the pond. Not just guard duty but Guard Duty! A relentless, unceasing, unrelenting, unyielding, and unstoppable sentinel.



Drum Roll!

And Now, Introducing...

Sméagol!