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Welcome to “Season Five” of our osprey cam! Get ready for another exciting season of osprey viewing at the Waquoit Bay Reserve, brought to you by the Friends of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge
If you’d like to show your appreciation for the nest cam, please Support the Friends of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge! As a nonprofit volunteer organization, we support a wide variety of education, research and stewardship projects within the Mashpee Refuge to ensure the long-term protection and enhancement of native wildlife and habitats.
Thank you in advance!
We are thrilled to offer this live stream of an active pair of Osprey at their nest at Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The pair are appropriately named Rachel and Carson, after the famed environmentalist.
This opportunity for a bird’s eye view of a beloved bird’s habitat is the result of a collaboration between The Friends of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge, which helped plan and locate the site for this unique “nest cam,” the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, one of the Refuge partners, and Comcast, which generously provided the equipment, installation and broadband connectivity to power this viewing experience.
One of our goals as a community-based nonprofit is to give the public opportunities to enjoy and interact with nature and wildlife. Thanks to Comcast, the live streaming of this osprey nest will broaden our reach to all of Cape Cod and beyond. We are grateful for the opportunity to use the live nest cam for observation, research and education purposes.
View highlights from 2026 (“Season Five”)
View highlights from 2025 (“Season Four”)
View highlights from 2024 (“Season Three”)
View highlights from 2023 (“Season Two”)
View highlights from 2022 (“Season One”) – mating, egg laying and hatching, feeding and more!
Please feel free to comment below with your observations or any questions you may have. We welcome your comments and questions! If you’d like to see a list of questions other viewers have asked, please see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Ospreys and the Nest Cam. You may also want to read this article to learn more about ospreys on Cape Cod.
Please note that first-time posters must be approved before comments are displayed, and allow up to 24 hours before your initial post can be seen by others.
14:56, nice big fish delivery!!
As far as I can tell, no fish today. I don’t think either of the parents have shown up at the nest. Oscar has been flying from the nest throughout the day.
(I have this up on my computer at work, so that’s why I watch and report so much!! I’ve very much become invested in this bird!)
I haven’t seen any fish deliveries today.
Oscar flew off the nest at approx. 6:32 am this morning.
a big fish at 4:03 PM.
At 13:02 there was an intruder, looks like it was a chick from another nest? The intruder was not all brown like the adults are. Oscar fought the intruder off.
Wow – I just check out the time slot. Pretty impressive job Oscar did protecting the nest. Yeah – the intruder was definitely an adult chick. It seemed to go on for longer than I would have expected and Oscar protected the nest!!! Way to go Oscar; great job!
Thank Nadine, I added this to the highlights. You can tell by the white-tipped feathers it was definitely a juvenile.
6:22 fish drop off
Once again, at 5:38 until 6:06am Oscar sits near/on his deceased siblings. So sad.
We just got mooned! (about 7:15 on 7/19)
https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/svg/1fae3.svg 😅
LOL!
Any meals today?
Yes a good size fish delivered after 11 a.m. fish 🐟👍🏼
Okay I missed something. I know what happened to the smallest chick. What happened to the other one?
Same thing. Dehydration from Starvation.
🙁
That is so sad.
Another meal for Oscar! 11:15
Oscar takes last bite including the tail at 5:09 this morning
Where were all these fish deliveries two weeks ago??
It’s 6:30 am and someone is sitting on top of the camera. I can hear the squawking and see a few flapping of the wings.
If I could only decipher what the chick is squawking about directly to his parent! At 5:27-5:28am the chick is looking directly at Rachel/Carson (the bib/necklace is too light to decipher gender) squawking up a storm!
Came to this amazing site late in the season. Why is there only one bird in the nest?
The other 2 did not make it.
Yes saw Carson come in at 21:23:21 with the fish. He stayed for less than a min
Oscar having a late night snack at 21:44.
We were at the nest a week ago and counted 8 ospreys flying in the air above this nest. It was quite a sight to see.
From watching the interaction at 8:30, it seems to me this is an intruder. It land and looks like it’s eyeing the fish. It then starts attacking like it’s trying to take the fish. I don’t know for sure but seems the parent wouldn’t try taking a fish that it’d brought to him earlier. With all the intruders lately, I’m sure that is what’s been going on this morning.
10:54, parent still there, Oscar flew in. As soon as he touched down, the parent became somewhat aggressive towards him, as if to say “you need to leave the nest for good!” About a minute later, parent took off.
9:49 parent back to the nest, but not Oscar. As of 10:00, parent still there and still no Oscar.
There is no way to know this is a parent.
True , I just assumed. There’s been a lot of activity in the air around the nest from about 12:30 on, I think there’s an intruder flying around.
I am pretty sure it was an intruder attacking the chick and staying on the nest. At 12:38 an adult flies down and tries to chase the adult that was attacking the chick off the nest and there are multiple adults flying around.
I saw disturbing behavior at 8:34am as well and then again at 9:13am.
It looks disturbing, but what I think is happening is that the parent is trying to get Oscar out of the nest. It happened again about 12:25, and Oscar eventually flew off with the parent right behind him.
Pretty sure it was an intruder. Aside from attacking it multiple times it also stole half a fish from the chick and took off. Only returning later to attack the chick again. Parents intervened at 12:38.
A parent joined the nest this morning (sorry, I’m still not good at distinguishing which is which!) Around 9:17, the parent started to jump onto Oscar’s back, Oscar went into a submissive posed. This activity kept up for a few minutes, parent jumping around and on Oscar, flapping its wings, until Oscar flew off with the parent following. I’ve read that parents will encourage the chicks to leave the nest, wonder if this is what was happening?
Oscar has white tips on his feathers.
Oscar first needs to learn to fish for his own food. From what I read, this is usually taught by the father Osprey
Wow, I watched that time slot and have never seen that behavior before. Very odd.
Good to see fish was brought this am
Oscar having a great start to the day, ate earlier & then took flight, now hanging out
Sounds like a good idea to me too.
We got a fish 5:40 am. Not sure who brought it.
At 00:13:31 what looked like Carson arrived on the nest with half of a fish! He stuck around until 00:15:30. I didn’t think they fished at night wonder where that came from so late?
Any other fish deliveries today?
Today at 7:30 pm the fledgling was taking many short strengthening flights!
11.20 07/16 the fledgling flew right into the camera!
Yes he did. At 11:21 am. Here he is
8:06am whole fish drop! I think it was dad also the chick seemed to be sitting on the camera earlier as you could hear her and see it shake a bit fyi.
7:39, she flew right towards the camera, then the camera started shaking.
Fishy at 8:05:17
Oscar has a fish! So happy!
Eating something on the nest now👍
A fish!!! Yay!!!
I did see it eating a small fish @ 4 ish this afternoon
I’m no expert but the last chick is looking a little weak this evening😢
Was there a fish delivery today?