Make Way for Ducklings

Fluffball in the Public Garden

adamg — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:19:50 -0400

There is just something irresistibly cute and quintessentially Bostonian about little kids dressed up like ducks for the annual Make Way for Ducklings parade through Beacon Hill. And every year, there's always one kid dressed like a giant ball of feathers.

A newspaper photographer asked the cop below for his name. "Officer Mike" he said. No, really, she replied. Officer Mike will do, he told her, as he continued to pose with the ducklings crossing Beacon Street.

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The Legend of Duck

adamg — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:24:26 -0400

It's a tale of loss and redemption, and it would make one helluva video game.

Duckling recovered; to be reunited with his family, feet

adamg — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:21:12 -0400

Associated Press reports Pack the Duckling was found on Mt. Vernon Street on Beacon Hill. He was found early this morning, according to a laconic tweet from Boston Police:

BRONZE DUCK stolen from Public Garden has been discovered abandoned on a Beacon Hill Street.

Officer Mike needs your help

adamg — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:58:49 -0400

He's been helping the ducklings get to the Public Garden for decades now, and now he could use a bit of help.

If you took any photos of Officer Mike at Beacon and Charles streets in 2005 or 2007, let me know. The actual Boston officer who played Officer Mike those years would love photos of himself in action. He was wearing his father's uniforms from back in the day - his father was also a Boston officer - and he'd love to have a picture or two or three:

... I have had hundreds of photos taken with the ducklings but with all those times I do not have one myself. ...

Make way for ducklings - and their parents

adamg — Sun, 13 May 2007 22:28:22 -0400

Today was Mother's Day, so that means it was also the annual "Make Way for Ducklings" parade from the Common to the Public Garden by way of Beacon Hill. As always, there were scads of impossibly cute kids dressed as ducks (with the odd Officer Mike thrown in - including one actual member of Boston's Finest who, dressed in an old BPD uniform, helped get the ducks across Beacon Street today). And as the Harvard Marching Band approached Beacon Street, they sang out a song whose lyrics seemed to be: "Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!"

Perhaps it was my imagination, but it seemed like more parents got dressed up this year: