Mystery of duck derby Dennis is solved
The mysterious tale of Dennis, a bright yellow duck with the number 512 written on its breast and which was discovered on Brodick beach after Storm Dennis, has finally been solved.
Discovered by Brian Robertson the day after high tides engulfed Arran on Saturday, he originally thought that the duck, which he has since named Dennis, was an ‘escapee’ from either the Shiskine, Whiting Bay or the Auchrannie duck derbies, but wondered if it could not have come from much further afield.
The three known duck derbies on Arran see a number of numbered ducks being dropped into the burns at Blackwaterfoot, Brodick and Whiting Bay, and while they are usually scooped up at the finish line it is not unfathomable that one or two might might have successfully avoided capture.
The duck mystery deepened further as one of the organisers of the Blackwaterfoot duck derby confirmed that Dennis was not a Shiskine duck. Sheila Gilmore said: ‘That is not one of our ducks. Our ducks are specially bred racing ducks which are highly trained performance specimens. I can also tell you that it is not a duck that is used by Whiting Bay during their duck derby as we let them migrate to Whiting Bay every year for them to use.’
There was no running of the duck derby in Blackwaterfoot, which used to be part of the Shiskine Sports Day and has not been run for the last couple of years.
The last remaining option was the Auchrannie duck derby, held on Hogmanay, but that seemed an unlikely option as the ducks would have been released almost two months ago and Dennis seemed in far too good a condition to have been outdoors for such an extended period of time.
However, following further inquiries, and an investigation by Auchrannie staff, Dennis was recognised as being one of their flock which somehow must of eluded recapture despite their best efforts.
And so concluded the mysterious tale of Dennis the duck, eliminating all suggestion that it may have originated from somewhere along the Clyde or even further afield such as with the fabled Friendly Floatees.
The story of the Friendly Floatees is an amusing one and as with the story of Dennis, it has a happy ending. In 1992 a shipping crate containing 28,000 plastic ducks was lost at sea between Hong Kong and the United States.
For the next 20 years, and to this day, these ducks, known as the Friendly Floatees, are being washed ashore on every continent of the world.
The routes and journeys that these ducks have taken has been mapped and they are helping oceanographers understand ocean currents and scientists have also gained a better understanding of plastic pollution despite the initial concerns about plastic being dispersed in the ocean.