We have a Lab and a mutt that run loose most of the time, and land based predators have never been a problem. Horned owls, however are another story.

Avian Predators
At this point we can hear several folks struggling to their feet and insisting that an overhead enclosure is the only practical means of ensuring that the tenants of your aviary don’t become a nighttime buffet.  Here, however we fenced an existing, 40 year old spring fed farm pond, which is ‘way too big to be considered for overhead netting. We enjoy seeing birds in a semi-natural setting and in any event don’t keep anything like buffleheads or harlequins, the loss of which might cause one to consider requesting a government bailout.

Following initial stocking of the enclosure in the fall of 2006 we experienced an almost frightful loss of birds, both to turtles and to nocturnal, avian predators. Because owls and other raptors are absolutely protected, we hit eventually on a couple of solutions that are ‘kinder and gentler’ than termination with prejudice. Neither is foolproof, but both have proven somewhat effective:

First, we topped every perimeter post that could afford a perch (some of the corner posts are telephone poles) with shock wires made up of a strand of ground and hot wires. Plans came from information found at Hawk and Owl Damage Management.

The shock pole doesn’t tell you when it works, but we hope any owl coming to look over the pond gets a big, nasty surprise, then flies away to tell all of its buddies.

The second, and in our view the more effective deterrent is in the form of netting placed about 18" off the water over the cover (bushes, willows, cattails) where the birds roost at night. If you have an open enclosure as we do and observe the birds at night, by spotlight, you will note that they utilize fairly limited areas for roosting cover. After a number of losses and consequent nighttime trips to the pond, we identified two or three areas, depending on the wind direction, where birds hid in cover at night, either at the water’s edge or in the shallows. These were covered by suspending approximately 15’x20’ pieces of 2" mesh aviary netting over the cover and extending out into the water. Heavy gauge wire was strung between support posts to prevent sagging.

We also found that a product sold at Southern States as "deer netting," a heavy duty ½" mesh or so 4’ netting, was an effective, and less expensive alternative to using aviary cover netting. Since constructing the covered roosting areas we have cut losses from owl hits to about 3 per year, which is nothing short of remarkable as the enclosure abuts a hardwood forest.

Turtles
Snapping turtles were, we learned, apparently included in the fauna existing in the pond when it was fenced. Contrary to the traditional duck-missing-a-leg writings you may have seen, we found that turtles attacked the larger birds by grabbing whatever was handy; usually, resulting in, for example, a canvasback with a 3" square of missing skin and feathers, tottering listlessly on the bank until it succumbed to a renewed turtle attack or to a winged predator. Smaller ducks, such as ringed teal, simply disappeared.  Sometimes we would find a patch of skin in the pond to identify a turtle as the culprit.

Turtle eradication proceeded slowly. Several were trapped, but despite turtle (‘turkle in eastern Virginia) hooks, traps, and constant vigilance, sporadic losses continued until one warm day in October when we spotted an absolute behemoth of a snapper walking the inside of the fence line. We were tempted to dispatch him to turtle heaven but recalling that she-who-must-be-obeyed had put a years old moratorium on homemade turtle soup (turtle anything, for that matter), very carefully grabbed him by the tail and contented ourselves in throwing him as far over the fence as we could- which was about 7 feet. Since then, more than one year ago, no turtle losses.

Simple Self Feeder


Often we can't make it down in daylight hours to feed so we came up with this nifty- and cheap- automatic feeder made from a 5 gallon bucket hung from a plant hanger. The feeder is hung over water to prevent crows, grackles, starlings, etc from pilfering the duck pellets. A 2" hole was cut in the center of the bucket, and a simple rabbit cage feeder attached with metal brackets and screws.



Later, we installed a sheet metal cone inside so that pellets would feed into the opening better. A metal bracket also had to be added to the rabbit feeder to prevent the ever- resourceful grackles from perching on the lip of the feeder.

The feeder trough occasionally ices up in freezing weather as the ducks carry water in. The only remedy we've found is to chip out the chunks with a screwdriver periodically. Virginia winters are of course more forgiving than those north of here, so this setup may not be ideal for all locations. Also, some types of feed (we tried chicken laying pellets for about one day) soak up water and do not work well. The Southern States 18% waterfowl pellets and Mazuri floating feed seem ideal.

Acknowledgments