A baker's dozen!

We spotted Matilda far away from the nest, communing with Drake: lots of tail wagging and cavorting. Hoping they were well occupied we sneaked to the nest. One keeping watch and the other taking this fabulous blip. It was so exciting, 13 little Matilda eggs snuggled in their duck down, lined nest. What incredible luck as she had not covered them up this time.

Red lights flashing on the camera showed that battery power was failing fast... focusing and fine tuning were out. One quick shot was all we got.

Far off in the garden Matilda looked at us .... we quickly walked away. She stood stock still. Once we were out of sight both ducks took off and flew high in the sky, circling overhead. We hoped we had not spooked her.

One of our building team was sitting on a digger smiling. As we were hiding, Matilda had landed on a nearby garden shed and as he watched she shed hopped back towards the nest. With a final parachute jump she plopped down over her eggs and merged into the vegetation once again. Throughout the chaos Rosie had remained on guard ... and had even moved right up to the nest . I hoped she would not jump in to brood the eggs.

It was so exciting to sneak a look at the eggs but I was sooo glad to know Matilda was home safely.