Butterfly And Wildlife Gardening And Photography» Goldfish

Hawks Are Hunting My Koi!

texdr — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:30:15 +0000

While debating on who should get out of bed because it was cold, Leecy yells, “holy crap, there’s a big bird!”

As we both dash out of bed to look at the backyard window, I noticed a huge Hawk sitting in my Maple Tree right above my Koi pond. That sucker was looking for a meal!

It’s not unusual for us to see a Hawk, but it is unusual for the Hawk to land on my Maple Tree and stare at the Koi in my Koi pond. This particular Hawk was a Red Shouldered Hawk (at least that’s what I think it is).

Red Shouldered Hawk Hunting Koi

After sitting in the Maple Tree for about 10 minutes, this bird had the audacity to fly down even closer to the Pond and land on a moss covered rock.

Red Shouldered Hawk Sitting On Moss Rock Hunting Koi

Fortunately, we have netting covering the Pond to keep the leaves from falling in there, and perhaps that’s about the only reason it didn’t grab one of my Koi and have a nice meal.

To make things even more interesting, as I was sitting out in the backyard this evening, I notice another Hawk sitting in a tree. If I’m not mistaken, this one was a Red Tailed Hawk (sorry the picture is not that great and the branches are distracting).

I’ve been corrected by Peter P, who has informed me this is a Red Shouldered Hawk, and not a Red-Tailed Hawk.

That Hawk was in the trees behind my backyard, which is where I’m used to seeing them.

Red Shouldered Hawk Stalking Prey

Has anyone with a Koi or Goldfish Pond ever experienced Hawks hunting your fish?

Will Anything Survive?

texdr — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:20:44 +0000

For those who don’t know or who are not living in the Houston area, we are having the coldest weather we’ve had in over 10 years. We’ve been having temperatures in the low 20′s which has just been devastating for many plants. We covered most of our fruit plants and have been bringing the milkweed into the garage.

I don’t have any nectar plants. Many of the Butterfly host plants (Pipevine, Passionvine, Milkweed that was not transported) are possibly dead. Our Cassia tree is looking rather wilted but it is still alive as best I can tell. I won’t know how things will turn out until the Spring.

The extreme cold has also taken a toll on some of our fancy Goldfish. We lost two of the Goldfish. On the bright side of things, these two particular fish appeared to be a little sick before the cold weather appeared.

The backyard Birds are still hanging around and I try and make sure they have fresh food on a daily basis.

Something tells me this will be a very busy Spring with lots of plants that will need to be replaced.

More Butterfly!

texdr — Sat, 23 May 2009 04:12:02 +0000

Butterfly Koi that is. This is an image from my pond. It’s about 3000 gallons, with 3 Butterfly Koi (notice the long flowing tails on the yellow fish), and who knows how many fancy Goldfish. We didn’t start out with that many Goldfish, but they keep on breeding.

Koi Pond