At Symonds Yat: The call duck surprise!

This is Tony. He is one of the leading call duck breeders in our area. Jayne took me as a birthday surprise to his farm today. As a breeder and lover of call ducks, Tony's farm is call duck heaven. To top it, he is passionate and dedicated. His enthusiasm is engaging, and he truly is a walking call duck encyclopaedia. Tony started breeding as a boy and has spent his life perfecting his stock. It is the best of best.

A proper call duck should be short beaked and short bodied. It is the most diminutive duck in side and yet the largest duck in voice. The call was originally used as a decoy duck, to lure other ducks to the hunters guns with its loud and repetitive quacking. In real terms its a archetypal bath tub duck appearence and for that it is reason increasing popular. Calls come in all sorts of colours, white, pied, apricot, and more. My love of the breed is a little like my chickens. I like mixing colours and seeing what comes out of the eggs. A bit like an artist mixing colours on a palette.

Tony passed on some wonderful stories, including one about some escapee ducks that flown away. Some days later the while stood in the garden and giving up hope, remarkably his pied drake returned to his feet. Tony said, " I think its like with children, if you love them and they love you, when you set them free they will come back to you." x

Jayne bought me three of Tony's calls....thank you Jayne, and thank you Tony! x