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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.
7:01 Two birds in the nest, one pecking the other. This has been a strange season. I don’t recall any of these behaviors in the past.
I went back and looked. That certainly was interesting and went on for a while. It would be nice if they were all banded so we would have some idea of what is going on between them, like rivals from other nests, young from previous years returning.
Strange behavior indeed. Either Rachel or Carson pushed Oscar off the nest
I didn’t notice the leg bands. Thought it was two adults.
One was definitely Oscar, I saw the band. Not sure if the adult was Rachel or Carson, I’m leaning more towards a nest takeover.
Looked like two adult feathers
Nest is empty on Friday night at 9:30 pm
Carson pushing out of nest an intruder @ 16:55
The last time I looked, around 1:30 today, both Rachel and Carson were in the nest (glad to see). Carson was devouring his fish. Oscar was clearly challenging him for a piece, even though he had a fish delivery several hours before (was worried about that because saw no fish deliveries for at least one full day). Carson didn’t want to share, and they flew off together, Oscar clearly in pursuit of Carson with the fish in his claws. Rachel stayed in the nest. Waited for a few minutes, but didn’t see them fly back to the nest. Clearly missed all the drama afterwards.
Is Oscar Leaving at some point? What’s next? I’ ve been watching the osprey’s on this site since day one. I love it. I’ve seen many survive and many die. I am from Venezuela where they come for the winter. I live in the USA and have a home near the actual nests where I stop here And there to personally see them. I just want to see them make it. Sorry if ama bit sentimental. Rossana
What a nice thing to see something that visits your homeland come back to visit you each year. Like bringing good wishes back and forth. Amazing that things in nature so small can travel so far. And hey what’s wrong with sentimental?
A screenshot I took.
14:34 Thursday 07/23
Glenn .. is there something not right with Oscar’s tail feathers? Maybe injured ehen defending the nest?
What the hell is going on. ???
Crazy happenings at the nest this afternoon. Birds landing then leaving. Some look to be adults others maybe juveniles. No telling who’s who. At one point it looked like Carson bringing another fish but then he left with it.
Did a nest takeover just occur?? 15:09 an adult landed with a fish in its claw, stood around for about 5 minutes then took off, with the fish. 15:37 two adults landed, been on the nest for over 10 minutes. Oscar seems upset. Are they Rachel and Carson?
One seems more dominant than the other. One was just sitting there with it’s head handing down. Around 15:54, the dominant one flew on top of the other, who put it’s head back down and it’s still sitting there, couple minutes later, with head hanging.
Seen a lot of fish deliveries and guests…so to speak…this afternoon. Definiately one male is not “family”…I think Carson brought an extra fish before Oscar was done…then there was a lot of osprey nest traffic in/out. Interesting behaviours.
Several osprey….
13:05 Oscar eating a fish! Did not see how it arrived, but at least it’s some nourishment…
Carson brought in the scup at 12:39:04
Yay!!! 12:30, nice big fish delivery!! I was starting to get worried!
Didn’t see any fish deliveries yesterday nor yet today
I’ve been watching all day. Have not seen a fish delivery. Saw her fly off several times during the day. I think Oscar was struggling with her band and may have removed it. Praying for her.
18:30 He has something stuck in his claws and he’s struggling to remove it.
Please correct me if I am wrong but at 18:30 it looks like Oscar is eating one of the dead Osprey, I see feathers…
When do Ospreys on the Cape begin catching their own fish? Once they do an do they bring them back to the nest to eat at first?
Two other nests I’ve been watching, at least one parent is always with the chicks. I wonder why Rachel and Carson are not staying with Oscar. At first I thought maybe it was because they are having a hard time finding food and are having to fly further, but even at night he is by himself. Or is one of them there, just out of sight of the cam???
And no fish delivery yet today.
Fish delivery, 14:56!
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.