Surprise!

Before we left on holidays, this male wood duck was a constant presence on our pond. We thought he was interested in our domestic duck.


But no, he had been keeping sentinel for his missus, which we now realise, was incubating a dozen eggs in the long grasses at the edge of the pond. Imagine our surprise to come home and find these twelve babies (I know, there are only eleven in the photo) grazing on our front lawn and swimming on the pond.