Walker's Feeds on Cole Harbour Road is a regular sort of rural feed store selling seed, hay, straw and assorted livestock supplies I buy bales of straw there to scatter around my sodden yard. The store has a pond beside it. The pond wasn't always there. The owners dug it some time ago. And then the Mallard ducks arrived.
Recently I bought the cheapest birthday present there. It was a $1.25 bag of cracked corn.
If you only have $1.25 in your pocket go to Walker's Feeds. Come out the door clutching your bag of corn. No need to call the ducks. They know what you're carrying and will run and flap and quack their way up from the pond to circle you. They will crowd around your feet. They will stand on your toes and press between your legs. It becomes hard to walk without stepping on a duck. At that point, you stop and bend over and timidly drop some corn. Their strange muttering, chipping cries rise in tone as they push, crowd, climb and flap over each other to reach the seed. Finally you screw up the courage to bend down with a small load of cracked corn in your open palm, bracing yourself for the pecks. And they DO peck and peck and peck. But it's not painful. More like a funny poke. And you smile. You giggle. The ducks are so focussed on their meal that you can reach out and stroke them. They're soft and silky feeling.
For me, feeding the ducks at Walker's Feeds ranks right up there with visiting Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg.
If you come for a visit you can guess that this will be on my list of "must see" places we visit.
Unless, of course, you're scared of ducks. In that case, you can sit in the car and watch while I feed them !
