Henry the Heron

[old 30-06]

Bit of an odd one this, but it may help someone else solve a problem. When the pheasant poults went into the pen all was well. After three days of no losses a buzzard turned up. He had one a day for dinner. This was very annoying. I tried various things to scare him off, but he was not deterred. Although he was not greedy, he was persistant. Every day I found the remains of a bird pecked out in the penn.

So, I then got hold of a decoy plastic heron (Henry) that a neighbour used to have on his pond. I mounted this decoy on the top of the penn gate. It caused some mirth and mickey taking amongst the syndicate members. But..........it worked. The buzzard has not since returned. My pheasants completely ignored Henry, and they are all now doing very well.

 

[Smellydog]

That's brilliant. Thanks

 

[Donkey Basher]

Old keeper friend of mine said buzzards are afraid of Hornets

 

[snoozlecracker]

I had the same but not. Radios on pir’s on corner posts kept the buzzards off. At night however I was plagued for the first 3 nights by tawny owls. They’d sit on posts and have a great game of dropping on the poults and biting the heads off and then returning to the post consuming the head and rinse and repeat. I had before the arrival of the poults consigned myself to loses and content in the fact that everything needs a meal. But the waste was infuriating me. A discussion with a very old boy was had by chance and he said what you need is some amber roadwork beacons……
Anyway out of frustration the kids were informed to see what they could acquire and the resulting haul were mounted on the posts in the pen and I’ve had no issues since.


T.

 

[BenBhoy]

Old keeper friend of mine said buzzards are afraid of Hornets

@jall55

 

[jall55]

@jall55

Think he means a different hornet hahaha