these birds can be hard on the fish in a farm pond. I have seen dozens of fish, floating dead, with a hole poked through them after a visit from a heron. Not sure why they would kill so many with out eating them.
Gold Maven....this is weird that they would do that (kill fish without eating), maybe it's young ones trying to learn to hunt?
Yes...tamrock, it's not easy to sneak up on them, that's why I took these from the porch. Although a couple of times I happen to be down where they like to land and ended up startling one and it squawked at me...kind of neat to be that close & get yelled at.