On opening Facebook we received a message from a gentleman in Russia, Vladimir Matusevitch, which started: “Hello! My wife and I recently found [a] numbered plastic duck!” And sure enough, the message was accompanied by a picture of a yellow duck, neatly numbered 1417. Vladimir had found the duck on the shores of the Barents Sea, in north Russia, Kola Peninsula, and was keen to find its origins. He’s already contacted many duck racing communities but as yet he’s been unable to track the duck’s source.
There’s no easy way of knowing how long the duck has been around. Although we very carefully try and collect all of our ducks back after our duck race, there’s a tiny chance that some get caught in weed so don’t get collected up. However, the duck in question doesn’t look like any of our recent ducks, and sadly we haven’t been able to find a picture of the ducks that we used when we first started the race in 1999 (at Milton Manor Farm in Canterbury). [Do you have a picture?]
Of course we doubt if this little yellow fellow is 20 years old. We suspect he travelled to the spot he was found following another duck race somewhere around the world. Let us know if he looks like a familiar racing duck!
Vladimir, who himself is from Russia, loves the north and travel. He really hopes we can help solve the mystery of the duck’s origins; he say’s it’s fun too! “If,” he says, “the truth is that this is one of yours, then its made a great voyage!”
For enthusiastic ducktectives, Vladimir’s given the location (https://www.google.ru/maps/@69.9196724,32.1564039,15z) and has offered to send the duck back to its “owner”.
Please contact us if you have been able to identify the duck.
Picture: The duck in question, numbered 1417. Picture credit: Vladimir Matusevitch/Rotary Club of Canterbury, Kent, UK
