Efforts to retrieve Newmarket's newest celebrity, Eddie the Mandarin duck, had to be delayed this weekend due to a large number of photographers and other gawkers who came to town to see him.
His owner, Tracey Harpley, has been attempting to lure him back for several days, and although the public interest in Eddie has been some help, it is mostly a hindrance.
"We didn't even bother; someone posted about him in one of those bird photography groups ... There were just so many people, there was no point," said Harpley.
Since Eddie's "celebrity duck" photographs first appeared in NewmarketToday last week, the story of the handsome duck that escaped Harpley's rescue farm has also attracted the attention of other local and national media.
"We watched him all weekend, and we thought we had him contained at another pond, but he ended coming back (to Fairy Lake) because the water opened back up."
With a serious cold snap on the way due to a polar vortex, Harpley said she needs to get the domesticated duck back home to her farm in the next few days.
To help that happen, a pair of hunters and other volunteers are assisting Harpley today.
The Town of Newmarket has also donated plastic snow fencing to cordon off a section of the shore.
If they can lure Eddie and his adoring flock of ducks into the makeshift corral with food, that should do it, she said.
"We can catch the whole damn flock, we'll bring them all back here, go through them, get Eddie out and put the other ones back. I have an avian veterinarian on call to help us in case anything goes wrong," said Harpley.
Catching the whole flock would also have the side benefit of catching another duck seen recently that some birders have noted could be a female mandarin duck. However, Harpley said she suspects that it is a female wood duck, a native wild species that has some similar characteristics to mandarins.
If they catch her along with Eddie and the rest of the flock, they will check to make sure.
"We will contain it until someone can come and confirm it 100 per cent either way. I'm just trying to make sure we do this by the book, get the permits and everything," she said.
Harpley said she will be relieved once she has Eddie home because the effort of catching him has taken time away from running the licensed wildlife rescue on her farm, where she cares for dozens of animals.
If there one silver lining to Eddie's escape and his sudden fame, she said, it's that that the story is a nice distraction from some of the more troubling news in the world lately.
