What are all those dead spots on 14 green?

If you have played golf over the last 6 months you may have notices some brown, dead spots across #14 green.  These spots are irregular shaped brown areas, where the grass has been completely killed, and the outside edge of the dead spot is green healthy grass.  These dead spots are actually caused by a Blue Heron.  The large birds like to fish around the pond on #14, and as he walks and flys across the green, he poops all over the place!  These droppings are very large and look like white paint splattered everywhere when they are fresh and new.  Over time the waste kills all the grass it comes in contact with, killing large areas of the putting green at times.  The pictures below show examples of the damage the Heron causes!

Here are two spots killed from Heron droppings, I put a can of wasp spray to help show how large these areas can be.

Another spot killed by a Heron.  On the day I took these pictures there were 13 different dead spots across 14 green!  

How do we fix these dead spots?  We use plugs from our nursery green which has healthy grass, and simply remove the damaged turf.  The new, healthy plug is then inserted and leveled to the same height of the green.  The picture above shows the plugs we used to fix the dead spots from the picture above with the wasp spray bottle. The plugs are noticeable the day after they are inserted in the green, but quickly grow together and blend into the green.

So what can we do to prevent the Heron from damaging the green?  Not a whole lot really, but we are going to try anything possible!  That means Heron decoys positioned by the green on 14 to try and prevent the birds from getting comfortable.  Blue Herons are said to be very territorial, and when there is another Heron on the pond they will not land or come to that same body of water.  We have purchased a few Heron decoys to see if we can have any luck!  Our staff repaired the green completely, and then we installed the decoys.  We plan to watch the green over the next week or two and see if the decoys will help reduce the Heron damage! 

Another picture of the Heron decoys, we have them positioned on both sides of #14 green!

Here is a picture of a live Blue Heron fishing around 3 green!  This picture was taken the same day we put the decoys out  on hole #14.  We see damage from feces on #3 green as well occasionally, but not near as bad as #14!