I have spent copious amounts of time (well over my usual 15 minutes!) researching what kind of duck Disney’s Daffy was/is, all to no avail. Unless I’m wrong – which is quite possible – Daffy is not one particular breed or another; Daffy Duck is (just) a duck.
The reason I embarked on these minutes of research is because our male Indian Runner duck reminds me of Daffy.
For this reason I have decided to call this duck (drake I should say!) ‘Daffy’. Until now, he and his ‘wife’ haven’t had names because they only just escaped being obliterated by the fox that killed the other Indian runners, so I have always just call them both ‘Duckies’. I didn’t want to name them in case I lost them – I hope that makes sense!
Daffy is the one I rescued from the fox the morning of the massacre. The fox had already killed several chooks and ducks and it had its jaws around Daffy’s neck when I ran out and scared it away. Now Daffy can’t quack properly. His wife, who I think I will now call ‘Dotty’ (not to be derogatory, but they are actually not the most intelligent of breeds!) is never far from his side. Here they are venturing into the ‘bath’ after everyone else is finished. The other ducks and geese will have nothing to do with the Indian runners. I don’t know why although, as I’ve mentioned before, Daffy does occasionally exert a bit of surprisingly fierce amourosity towards the Sebastapol geese. I wish I could get a photo of Godfrey chasing Daffy chasing Diamond but it’s always short-lived with Daffy well and truly banished to the outskirts!
Daffy and Dotty are so intimidated by Godfrey and the rest of ‘the gang’ that they live completely separate lives; they even have a separate pen because Godfrey is so horrible to them. When I let them all out in the morning, the gang follow me for the lettuce treats but Daffy and Dotty go in the opposite direction because they are so scared of Godfrey!
Hence, I am unable to hand feed these lovely Indian Runners unless Godfrey isn’t looking; it has to be quite secretive.
I will try their new names out today!
jmgoyder 
I think the tune is good in the blogs I read! I have had very bad experience prevously to be out on the Internet and I’m astonished by the good manners here!:))) Ann
Yes I think blogging etiquette is generally quite good and, yes, I had some pretty awful experiences with other forms of internet communication!
I may be wrong, but I believe that I read that Daffy “sputtered” and took after the Ruddy duck which is very colourful but does sputter.- may have read that in a bird guide. Apparently Woody Woodpecker with the red topknot was inspired by the Piliated Woodpecker.Anyway your ducks sure have amusing personalities which you bring alive with your stories.i get a kick out of them.
Your comment is just as amusing – thanks!!
Lol! I like Daffy already. But I never really liked Donald, Mickey, Daffy, RoadRuner or any of these Disney creations. I liked Tom and Jerry, the old cartoons, where the drawings were softer, rounder. Top Cat – Yogi Bear, that sort of thing. they weren’t Disney, were they?
Haha! Thank you and I think they were all Disney. Why don’t you like Mickey? Oh, wait a minute – he’s a mouse – good call!
Liz – You obviously like old cartoons, thus just letting you know that I have a series, Saturday Morning Cartoons, focuses on classic cartoon characters and posted on most Saturday mornings. 🙂
Could you send me the link? Julie
Link to the mentioned category. http://afrankangle.wordpress.com/category/entertainment/classic-cartoons-entertainment/
Very interesting so I have clicked ‘follow’ – thanks Frank.
🙂
Cool article! Thank you for the like on my post on Pololu!
Loved it!
This was fun to read. Thanks for posting.
He is a funny duck!
Love your ducks! Many thanks too for stopping by my blog with a ‘Like’.
You are welcome!
Hi Julie, I think Indian Runner Ducks are so cute! I feel the same about naming the various wildlife we have around us here on the little farm I have. No domestic animals as of yet but that may or may not happen in the future. I agree with your thought that Daffy is a generic sort of duck that was represented in the cartoon. Have a really nice day tomorrow!
Thank you!!!!!
these ducks are derived from mallards, as are many other domestic breeds. Yeah Daffy does look like an Indian runner. The color is what you would find in a farm yard duck
Do you know why they are so much more timid than our other ducks?
So enjoyed this post and wanted to thank you for liking a recent post of mine ‘Lost in April’. I hope all goes well with Daffy and Dotty…that their treatment by ‘the others’ improves and the fox stays away. So there is bullying in the animal world too…
Yes and another duck and his turkey friend has a terrible fight yesterday! They’re friends again today.
I love your photos and see you are now following my blog bulldogsturf, you might enjoy my animal photos on http://visitstothepark.wordpress.com/ and my other photos on http://robsotherphotos.wordpress.com/ I love your work and am pleased you are following me, please feel free to comment criticise and give advise, I need it.
I just checked your blogs out – great stuff! You don’t need advice – it’s all good!
Wow. don’t you think human behavior is no different?
Here’s to the badass wifey-material Dotty is 😀
Ha!
Daffy should be ashamed of himself, flirting with geese, when his mate is so enamored of him.
I was listening to a radio programme and a farmer was saying he uses a waterproof shower radio to keep foxes and other predators away from his livestock. He uses it usually during the lambing season to keep foxes away from the newborn lambs. Might be an idea for the future.
I get foxes in my garden at night and I live in a town – it is near a country park, so they probably come from there. Might use the radio to scare them away in case they attack my cats.
Obviously, you should buy a cheap radio in case it gets damaged or stolen.
What a wonderful, simple, commonsense solution – I am going to try it – thank you!!!
Boy, Godfrey rules the roost doesn’t he? He should have been a chicken!
He is definitely the boss!
I think Daffy was a Warner Brothers character – definitely more with than his Disney cousins:) My brother writes a blog about raising chickens and he has a few ducks in the mix – he has 4 tht stick together – they hatched at the same time. There is another that hatched with a group of chickens – that silly thing thinks he’s a chicken and the other ducks want nothing to do with him. I don’t know much about duck varieties – yours are sure cute:)
I thought I was already following you because I see your comments on other blogs but I just checked and I wasn’t following you so now I am. On the other hand the stupid notification thing doesn’t seem to be working for me at the moment. What is the link to your brother’s blog?
I just read your blog about hitting the wrong buttons and reflagging – made me smile because when I opened my WP account I accidentally started a blog – I’ve written nothing there but get the occasional comment about my need to write something. Anyway – I believe you may have followed my vacant blog – I need to figure out how to delete that thing:) My bother’s blog is http://thefruitychicken.wordpress.com I believe you are already following the eff stop my real blog. I appreciate the follow(s) either way:)
Oh I feel so silly – eff stop of course! Sorry – another faux pas hehe!
No worse than having a vacant blog:) I only started this to get my brother off my back. I opened an account to subscribe to his blog. He harrased my empty blog so I started writing something.
Wise brother!
Indeed
What a delightful post! I love this story and your thought to compare him to Daffy. What fun! We watch the wild ducks on the river all the time, and it can be fascinating, but this is like getting a glimpse into their private lives. I love the image of sneaking behind Godfrey’s back to feed them too. 🙂 Thanks for enjoying Breathing Space on my blog! I’m so glad your visit brought me to find your blog too.
This was a fun read Julie. Could it be that the artists at Disney simply drew their intrepretation of what a Daffy Duck looked like? He could have been a combination of species. Anyhoo, loved the post. 🙂
Cheers to relating cartoons to real life. Best of luck with integrating their names … and thanks for visiting my little corner of the world.
Pleasure was mine.