Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog

This is about three or four years’ worth of plastic waterfowl that I have found at the Falls of the Ohio.  I’ve seen many more over the years, but it didn’t occur to me then to try to make a collection out of them all.  Nevertheless, I did get around to it!  To call them rubber duckies is misleading since every one of the examples I found was made of plastic.  They range in size from tiny to life-size and so there is considerable variety in form and purpose.  Not all these faux-birds are ducks.  I found a few geese and a swan as well.  I’m not remembering what kind of bird Sesame Street’s Big Bird is and so I’m throwing one of him in here too.  Here are more images of these familiar bath toys that floated down the Ohio River.  Many of the photos are of the ducks as I found them at the Falls of the Ohio.  I’ll start with the smallest duck and work my way up to the largest.

Here’s another image of this same duck as it was found under the driftwood.

Here’s a close up of one of the ducks with its warm glow of river patina.

I found the next one near an area that I was collecting coal gravel and originally posted this picture…followed by one sitting on my table at home.

One of the girl scouts I worked with recently found this goose and gave it to me.  I recently found it again looking through my collecting bag.

Somehow I didn’t take a picture of this swan where I found it, but it was in the collecting bag too.  Perhaps it once held a small vase with flowers?  The next duck is a special find from the Falls.  This is the only hunting decoy that I have found and it is made from plastic too.  I think the target species here is the Black Duck.  The Falls area regularly attracts all kinds of real ducks like Golden-Eyes, Canvasbacks, Scoters, and ever-present Mallard Duck.  Once I decided to form this collection…I was happy to find this piece.

And now for the largest plastic duck I found.  This appeared after last Spring’s heavy flood.  I believe this was originally a wheeled pull toy and perhaps it held a doll?

I promised Big Bird and here he is in two images of two different found toys.

Here’s an oddity among my rubber ducky finds…I wonder what happened to the rest of it.  I like the sun-glasses look.

One final image for now.  Another collection shot set up on my backyard table at home.  Hope you enjoyed the Lucky Rubber Ducky Collection from Kentucky!