The frogs and toads that inhabit our backyard ponds are rewarded with meals provided by the many insects and other invertebrates that are attracted to the habitats we create. The amphibians also serve as food for predators such as snakes, opossums, skunks, raccoons, crows and even large wading birds like the great blue heron. I was shocked one autumn morning a few years when I looked out the window to see a three-foot tall bird only a few steps from my back door. The heron began making its way stealthily around the pond, its long beak pointed to the water’s edge, obviously in hope of spearing some hapless cold-blooded creature.
I’ve yet to see the heron make a kill, but each year at this time it arrives in my backyard and spends several days patrolling the pond. To the bird’s disadvantage, it’s just about this same time that the nearby maple and oak trees begin shedding their leaves and that my wife and I decide to stretch netting over the water to keep the leaves out. I doubt the heron comprehends our actions and I hope it doesn’t take them personally. We’re not purposely denying him a meal or trying to make his life difficult. We’re just trying to keep the pond from becoming choked with leaves and stagnant.
If you have a backyard pond or decide to install one, you’re sure to be rewarded with a daily cast of wildlife characters, including some that will surprise and impress you.
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