It appeared at the quack of dawn.
Residents of Belfast, Maine, are bewildered by the unexpected visit of a massive, rubber duckie with the word “joy” emblazoned across its pseudo-feathers now floating in the city’s harbor.
A towering 25-feet high, the aquatic avian was mysteriously anchored to a shallow end of Belfast Bay Friday night, according to Bangor Daily News.
And the townspeople find said duck to be anything but fowl.
“Everybody loves it,” Belfast harbor master Katherine Given told the local news outlet.
“I have no idea who owns it, but it kind of fits Belfast. A lot of people want to keep it here.”
Since the duck’s migration, rowboaters have even paddled out to the joyful waterbird.
Finding out who owns the duck has been a tough nut to quack.
Another woman, Susie Dickerson of Portland, waddled to Belfast’s docks to get a close-up view of New England’s latest sensation.
“It certainly is cheery,” she told Bangor Daily News.
Despite the pride of Gordon Bombay shifting to a new position in the harbor due to thunderstorms, Given says it’s a nonissue for maritime travel.
“Where it’s in the shallow water, it’s not bothering anybody . . . Even one of the shorefront property owners came by and said, ‘Oh, we love that.’ It’s good fun.”
Now all that’s left to investigate is who foot the bill for the harbor’s new centerpiece and how they intend on retrieving the big fella.
“It’ll be interesting to see if somebody tries to take it out of here how far they’ll get.”
