Meet the duck man of Eatons Neck

Fred Brumm and his daughter Laura O'Donohoe walked down the middle of Eatons Neck Road Tuesday, trailed by the small waterfront community's unofficial mascot -- the Eatons Neck Duck.

Quacky quickly plodded after them, his webbed feet slapping the asphalt, all the while emitting the sounds that lent him his name.

"I can't go anywhere without this duck following me," said Brumm, 78, who takes care of 1-year-old Quacky and another duck, 3-month-old Donna, at the home he shares with his wife, Patricia.

On and off for decades, Brumm has been raising Pekin ducks -- white-feathered birds with bright orange bills that Brumm swears can be smarter than some people he's seen.

Brumm's affinity for his web-footed friends began decades ago after he received an Easter duckling as a present when he was a child in the Bronx.

"It was the talk of Silver Beach for years, Freddy Brumm and the duck," he said. "If you saw me, the duck was right behind me. That's where it all started from."

He estimates he's had roughly 14 ducks over the years -- all the girls named Donna, the boys named Donald -- except for Quacky, which his 6-year-old grandson Jack named.

These days, he often walks with his charges to the beach, where Donna and Quacky swim before following him faithfully home.

In 1983, Brumm decided to march one of his ducks in the Eatons Neck Fourth of July parade, along with the politicians and Boy Scouts that make up the holiday staple. O'Donohoe, then 13, was assigned to lead the duck through the roughly half-mile parade route.

The duck was instantly popular and became a tradition, much to the chagrin of the teenage O'Donohoe. When she tried to bow out three years later, the community would have none of it.

"As she got older, she wasn't quite as comfortable," said Jody O'Donnell, 63, a former president of the Property Owners of Eatons Neck Beach Association. "And I begged her to keep doing it. It's my favorite thing."

O'Donnell even mailed an invitation to Donald the Duck, care of O'Donohoe, to march in the parade again that year. O'Donohoe acquiesced, knowing she was stuck as the parade's official duck-handler -- at least until she left for college.

O'Donohoe, 41, picked up the tradition again two years ago after a roughly dozen-year hiatus -- now marching with not only the duck, but with her own three young sons.

This time, she knows she's here to stay. "Yes, I plan on doing it," she said.