Posted on 04/08/2005 9:12:52 AM PDT by Lightchild
WASHINGTON – The Secret Service, which has the job of guarding the president and other dignitaries, now has a new temporary duty – protecting a mother duck and her nine eggs.
The duck, a brown mallard with white markings, has had several names suggested by Treasury Department people, including "Quacks Reform," "T-Bill," and "Duck Cheney." It has built a nest in a mulch pile right at the main entrance to the Treasury Department on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Secret Service's uniformed division, which provides protection for the White House and Treasury building, has set up metal guard rails to protect the nest, which has attracted the notice of tourists on their way to see the White House.
The duck has been provided with a water bowl and seems oblivious to all the attention, sitting calmly on its nest on top of the mulch pile that surrounds one of the new trees planted along Pennsylvania Avenue as part of a renovation project.
Treasury Secretary John Snow stopped to pay his respects this week on the way back from a congressional hearing, Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols said Friday.
"He had been briefed on the duck and he stopped to pay a visit," said Nichols.
The eggs are expected to hatch the last week of April at which time the duck will be relocated nearer water. But until then, the duck will occupy some of Washington's prime real estate.
"Foreign leaders, members of Congress, everybody who visits Treasury has to pass by the duck," Nichols said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktvb.com ...
I love ducks!
I'm going to go visit them now.
A story only I could love.
I have a half dozen wood duck boxes on my property here in mid-Missouri. Three or four of them are busy with mother ducks right now. Our cat got a little curious about the comings and goings of the ducks and climbed up to have a look inside the box. The mother duck gave him such a pecking that he stayed in the house for two days.
I'm sorry, but for some reason all I can think of is duck a la ronge and western ommelets.
Several years ago a mother duck was nesting outside the office building I was working in. She hatched her eggs and we got to watch the whole thing as she brought her ducklings up. One morning she decided to lead them to water for the first time, but the nearest pond was across a four-lane street. Some of my co-workers went out and stopped four lanes of traffic at the height of morning rush hour so the duck family could cross the street!
(Cox Road running through Innsbrook, for those who know the Richmond area.)
}:-)4
It is truly shocking and thoughtless that it would occur to anyone to put a cute duck and her chilrun at risk by encouraging 'Rats and "Progressives" to commit Anatidacide.
They have been known to inflict death or serious damage on anything with a Politically Incorrect name...
In the South of France they eat anything as long as it's made of duck.
No flames please, I HAD to go to Paris on business, but I did manage to tick off some lefties protesting Bush. I got into a shouting match with some of them at the Montparnasse metro/train station.
Next week I think I'll go to the bistro around the corner from my office and have their duck with apples...
Thanks for the suggestion!
We put up two duck boxes when we lived in Minnesota and got to see nine baby ducks jump out of the box and follow their mom down to Prior Lake. The mother flew down to the ground and peeped a couple of times, then the babies came blasting out, some landing on their heads. Didn't seem to bother them, tho.
Well, here in NE St. Paul, we live near a small urban lake. I've got bird and squirrel feeders in the front yard, and there's a lot of waste.
Last fall, a pair of mallards, having finished the breeding season, started flying in to our yard (about 1/4 mi. from the lake) to feed on the corn and other seeds below the feeders. They came three or four times a day, until they flew off for the Winter.
A couple of weeks ago, they showed back up, and have been coming, along with about a dozen or so of their friends, three or four times a day, to feast on the leavings of the other birds and the wasteful squirrels.
My wife and I get a huge kick out of watching them feed. I'm buying a duck feeder today and 100 lb. of duck feed. We'll see if we can't fill the yard with mallards!
The small town I live in has a pond on the main road that is home to both permanent and visiting duck populations. The road is marked with a "Duck Crossing" sign and the speed limit (35 mph elsewhere) is dropped to 5 mph. During a flood spell, the pond had risen to cover most of the road and traffic was held up by ducks swimming in the road.
No one believed me when I said I was caught in a traffic jam because ducks were swimming in the road.
Oddly enough, everyone is very patient to let ducks cross and to wave at the cars behind to advise of duck conditions.
Ya Hoo!!! Thanks for the duck pics. You can never have too many duck pics.
That's cute, but now I have to clean my monitor. That's what I get for drinking while Freeping.
May I suggest that you not forget Newton's First Law of Ducks: "What goes in, must come out"?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.