Capturing The Annual Duck Walk At Gary Allan Learning Centre
“In what has now become not only a much anticipated and a viral sensation, but an inspiring symbol of intelligence, survival and team work, our resident female Mallard duck returns each spring to lay her eggs in the safety of one the interior courtyards of our school. Protected from predators such as foxes, coyotes and even other rival ducks, the mother lays her eggs in the same nest each year, typically laying 8-12 eggs each time, knowing that she will have to rely on the help of humans to escort her babies to the water once they hatch.
The eggs take about 28 days begin hatching, a process that may take up to 24 hours. They then need 1 day to dry off, be waterproofed by the mothers oil glands and strengthen their legs . By early morning the day after hatching, the mother will be ready to take her ducklings on the the 150 meter (491 foot) journey through the school hallways and down to the neighboring creek, which is the safest time of day to avoid encounters with other animals. This also gives the mother time to find an adequate hiding spot for their first night in the wild ¹.”
source: https://garyallan.ca/ducks/
How We Set It Up
In order to live stream the ducks with as little disruption as possible, our team went in and installed two different network drops into the court yard where the duck nests are located. We then set up two tripod mounts with Uniview cameras on each tripod. This camera is positioned directly on the nest and livestreams on YouTube. This allows all the students/teachers and really anyone to view in real time what the mother duck is doing and also keep an eye on the eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the ducklings get escorted through the hallway of the school and out to the creek in the back.