posted April 10, 2005 11:32 PM            

By Martin Crutsinger The Associated Press
Published: Apr 8, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

posted April 17, 2005 02:40 PM            

Looks like her trust was rewarded since the Secret Service is guarding her and her nest..in addition to setting up a barrier and providing her with water.

posted May 05, 2005 02:13 PM            

Just when federal officials thought "The Case of the Ducks" was closed, more peeps are heard near the White House.

By Howard LaFranchi

Forget filibusters, ethics committees, and whether or not Laura Bush watches "Desperate Housewives."

What really interests Washington - and much of the rest of the country, it seems - is the fate of a certain mallard mother duck and her 11 ducklings

Unless you've had your head buried in the Social Security debate, you probably know about the mama duck who chose for her nest the weak shelter of a newly planted elm at the Treasury Department - one door down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Last Saturday 11 ducklings were born, and on Sunday nothing less than a federal motorcade escorted mother and peeping babies to a new home in the more bucolic Rock Creek Park.

(Ha! Mama duck must have channeled to her distant relatives of Boston fame: Being escorted across the street by whistle-blowing Irish cops was so 20th century!)

The official transfer in Washington was the talk of domestic and foreign media outlets alike. But it seems this matriarch took one look at her new surroundings and saw this as a rude banishment. And she would have nothing of it.

"C'mon, kids," she must have quacked. "This is America, we have our rights - we're going home!" Because by Tuesday afternoon, mama and babies appeared to be making their way back - you guessed it - to the Treasury.

Uncustomarily, tourists had their back turned to the White House as they snapped photo after photo of the mallard mom with neat line of ducklings in tow in Lafayette Park. At one point mother duck ventured into the dry bed of a switched-off fountain, only to quack-quack nervously when she realized her offspring could not get out.

The park crew sprang into action, laying boards to try to coax the flock out. One worker was heard radioing to someone, "I tell you, they're back."

But were they really? Could this possibly be the same family of 12 that had been taken to a new home over a mile away just two days before? By Wednesday, Park Service groundskeeper James Sledge, busy replacing grape hyacinths and red tulips, could confirm only that the family of ducks in the park Tuesday had been escorted south and into the White House grounds to the north fountain.

"I know it was the same number of babies, and they looked the same, but I don't see how they could have come that far," said Mr. Sledge, "unless ..." and his sentence ended there, indicating the different scenarios he'd be contemplating.

Whoever the mother duck was in the dry fountain basin, she became more nervous on Tuesday as more people gathered around. The boards that the crew laid down didn't work. So finally the crew shooed mama and lifted the babies out - to a round of tourist and office-worker applause.

As the family of 12 headed straight in the direction of Treasury, one father wearing shorts and an impatient frown sighed, "OK, now can we go look at the White House?" But so soon after such a poignant display of female determination, he should have known what was coming.