West Richland duckcams go live, watch for hatch

The Tri-Cities’ annual wood duck hatch watch is on.

Video cameras in seven nesting boxes near West Richland have gone live, streaming video of wood duck mamas and their eggs waiting to hatch. The hens are sitting on as many as 22 eggs each.

Links to all the duckcams are posted at bit.ly/woodduckslive.

Last year the video cameras caught ducks hatching and making the jump from their nest from late April through early June.

Wood ducklings usually leave the nest the morning after they hatch because wood ducks do not feed their young in the nest. The ducklings follow the hen, jumping to the ground below the nest.

The cameras were set up by the Richland Rod and Gun Club’s Dale Schielke, some in nesting boxes built by Tri-City-area students. Laptop computers were donated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

This story was originally published April 15, 2017 at 2:51 PM with the headline "West Richland duckcams go live, watch for hatch."