Heres wishing you all a merry Christmas and hope one and all has a happy, healthy New Year for 2010.

Fell rather sad and guilty today as a couple of herons or cranes have eaten 11 of my fish.  Noticed this morning that rather a lot of water was missing but didnt realise the fish were also. Then as I was waiting for my cousin Deb to pick me up to take me shopping I noticed one heron/crane on the rooftops. I had netting over the pond but when I had replaced the pump in the summer I hadnt put the netting back on properly.... When I returned from shopping I thought I had better refill the pond, only to realise that there were only 8 fish in the pond instead of 19. Daughter Kate then heard strange noises from my dads garden which we later identified as a heron. Then son Damon saw two swooping down on the field at the back of us while he was walking Max our German Shepherd. I caught sight of them in the distance and thought that was the last of them. So I refilled pond and put new pond protection net over and thought that the fish would be fine now... Then this afternoon my dad came home and came running in to tell me that there was one large and one juvenile heron on our roof! I rushed out into my garden to make sure the fish were alright, only to find the fish in only about 6 inches of water...the herons beaks had cut into the butyl liner without me realising it. So now the poor remaining 8 fish are in a temporary plastic box in the garden with lots of metal grilles etc over them to protect them. My poor fish.... I feel really guilty. If only I had put the old netting back on properly, Ive had the new netting for about 2 months now and hadnt bothered.... I love birds, and normally see the cranes or herons fly over my garden early in the morning on their way back to the Thames marshes and never see them in the middle of the day. Just hope they leave the remaining fish alone.