Ducks, Eagles, and Anne Sloan

My hubby and I live on the river in Kamloops and we get a lot of wildlife here, but my favorites are the ducks that come into the yard. They are so funny to watch and we have been feeding them for the 3 years that we have been here. I buy them feed at the feed store so they get nutritional food, but I also treat them with bread and crackers.

 

This is the scenery across the river from our yard

 

 

 

And this is to the left of our yard, the geese are Fred and Ethel, they stay here all year long

we are good friends now

 

 

 

 

And this is what my yard looks like most mornings

my lil duck family

not so little anymore

 

 

 

I try not to get too close with the camera because my regular ducks are OK with me being in the yard

But the new ones are a little skittish

I guess if eagles were constantly hunting me I would be a little skittish too

And don't even talk to me about duck hunting

I do not know how anyone can hurt something so beautiful

I love my ducks and I talk to them everyday

I watch them from the house and they are so funny and so cute

I watch their little squabbles over food

and I watch them interact and I love them

 

 

Unfortunately having a lot of ducks and geese in the yard also attracts eagles and they have killed 2 of my ducks. I now watch my yard like a mother bear watching her young.

 

Eagle in our tree watching the river

The Eagles that hunt our ducks are not small birds, the one we saw today probably have a 4 foot wing span or more 

At one time we counted 13 eagles across the river from our property, The Salmon will start running in the spring and then the eagles will head farther east and feed on the salmon.

And hopefully my ducks will be safe

 

 

 

 

Here is hubby feeding the geese, somedays we get ducks and geese

The geese are very protective of the ducks and will actually let them eat first

 

Yesterday 2 eagles were circling the river and dive bombing a duck in the water. I thought he was injured and my husband came out just as I was going to go down some icy stairs to the river. We have little or no bank and I would have surely fallen in, but I was not going to watch those eagles eat one of my ducks. When he realized what I was thinking of doing, he said are you nuts, are you willing to fall in a freezing river and die for a duck. Well when you put it that way I guess it was kind of dangerous.

 

 

You can see the bank at the river is not very big and very icy, so I probably would have fallen in, ok hubby was right,,,,,,,,,,,, once  lol

 

 

So I decided to throw snowballs near the eagles and scare them off, I did not throw the snowballs at them. They are a beautiful bird too and I would never hurt them and I know they have to eat too. I just wish they would stick to fish and field mice and leave my little ducks alone.

Eventually the eagles flew away and the duck was able to rest and fly off when he regained his strength. Maybe I am going to have to buy salmon to feed the eagles and then maybe they will stop chasing my ducks lol.

Now while I was doing my eagle watching and protecting my ducks I also did some painting. We still have lots of snow but the sun was shining today and working in the sun was not that cold.

At times it was quite warm

 

 

I found this cute little cabinet at a thrift store

I decided to get rid of the ceramic on top (who does this stuff)

And I changed the hard ware

at one point I added feet to it but they didn't look right

 

 

 

 

See it looks funny with feet doesn't it

OK no feet it is

 

 

 

 

 



 

I painted the cabinet with Anne Sloan Florence and sealed it with clear and dark wax

And I added new hardware

 



 

And here she is all done, it really is a cute cabinet,

I added back plates to the door handles and I love the look

Finding old hardware is getting harder and harder to find

So I am happy when what I have works

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this little table in a junk pile at a thrift store and I loved the carvings on the sides

I knew with a little TLC this table could come back to life

 

 

 

 

 

And I was right, look how cute she looks

with two coats of Anne Sloan's Versailles and a little dark wax

This little table now looks stunning

 

 

And now after a long day of ducks and eagles and painting outside

I think I am ready for my jammies and some couch time

 

Hope everyone had an amazing day

 

hugs

 

 

 

and Maggie and hubby

they were my eagle watchers today too