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New bill at Treasury

A brown mallard nests on a mulch pile near the main entrance to the Department of the Treasury on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington last week. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Charles Homans Knight Ridder
A brown mallard nests on a mulch pile near the main entrance to the Department of the Treasury on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington last week. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

WASHINGTON – Pennsylvania Avenue’s newest resident, like others on her block, enjoys the attention of Secret Service agents, camera-happy tourists and, on Friday at least, clamorous protesters.

Unlike her neighbors, she has feathers, webbed feet and nine eggs.

The female mallard duck showed up at U.S. Treasury headquarters next door to the White House two weeks ago, built a nest in the mulch at the base of a sapling near the front gate and laid her eggs.

Secret Service agents erected fencing around the nest to protect President Bush’s new neighbor, whom Treasury employees named Quacks Reform. Now National Zoo biologists are advising Treasury officials on how best to ensure the bird’s well-being, and the National Park Service officers who oversee the White House grounds are keeping an eye on her, too.

Treasury spokesman W. Taylor Griffin said the eggs most likely would hatch in the next two weeks. Treasury employees already have named two of the expected ducklings: Duck Cheney and T-Bill.