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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.
10:32 AM All these recent posts about fish…….these two juvies on the nest need to go learn fishing…..long flight to winter grounds and it’s coming soon…….
who is on the nest now, b & c?
Based on activity over the past week I would agree with that. B & C seem to take very short flights.
13:16 D is back
Night night….
16:43 an uneaten unclaimed fish on the nest…..never thought I’d see that again here.
Now that I got a good view of a whole fish, these are menhaden. Also known as bunker or porgy.
I have watched a few videos from this person on our local fishing (love the underwater shots). He has one on menhaden (pogy / bunker to some fishers) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhprcLcGGBs&t=2s
I think opera singers would be good background music … lol
I just watched that video you posted, the fish on the video looks like the same fish I saw dropped off yesterday. Thanks
sorry you did not post the video.
Tania did.
Did he bring back a fish? I missed it, if Carson or Rachel dropped it off.. looks like Charlie to me
I saw mom bring back the fish Joanne Moser refered to. The larger of these two juvies ate the hole thing. Mom tried to take it away half eaten but nothing doing. # 3 got the scraps of it with Mom off the nest. I’m sure an adult brought this latest fish in but I did not see.
When I posted one of the birds eating today and not sharing I was not sure who was feasting on the fish or where it came from
There were two others trying to get a bite but were unsuccessful
Then maybe 45 minutes to an hour later I think it was Carson who barely touched down on the nest and dropped off a big fish
At that point I think it was Charlie who took over and started eating
JM
# 3 been capable of this for quite a while. Never seems to get the chance. Now to just get past the head and get to the good stuff.
Not sure who has the fish…but they are not sharing.
Here’s a great site which documents the migrations and behaviors of a number of tracked ospreys from 2000 to 2018, by researcher Rob Bierregaard: https://www.ospreytrax.com/OspreyMainPage.html
Fascinating information, and often shows that Ospreys don’t always follow the norm and atypical (and in some cases, unexplained) behavior seems to be somewhat common.
Rob Bierregaard and ospreytrax are The source for East Coast osprey migration data. I remember reading about a female taking an over the ocean route south logging about 2200 miles of flight.
Another osprey program that collaborated with Bierregaard in 2013-2014 . Program is run by Essex County Greenbelt Association, located in Essex County, North shore of Massachusetts. They have an active EarthCam web cam and informative web site, https://ecga.org/osprey. Great photos also!
Thank you. Great they are banding.
I assume that is Charlie sprawled out in the center of the nest. The only one that looks comfortable to me.
Glenn, I think you mentioned earlier that there were 2 chicks in the nest on the chimney above the Visitor Center building. Has anyone been able to determine if the visitor at Rachel and Carson’s nest is one of the 2 chicks from that other nest? And if so, any ideas on why it would prefer being in a very crowded nest with 3 other fledglings instead of being with just one other sibling? Is it possible something has happened to the male adult and food has become scarce?
Maybe the roof of the building is generating heat in the sun all day and this nest is cooler?
Just a theory but the last time we were there you can see there is very little nest up there on the roof because the sticks just fall off the chimney. We had talked to Hannah and she said there was actually nest down in the chimney where the eggs had been laid. I imagine short of perching on the edge of the chimney or the roof it’s not a comfortable solution. Perhaps there was only room for one now so our nest got the extra chick. 🤔
Both are good theories! There were either 2 or 3 chicks in the chimney nest (hard to know for sure since there’s no camera on it). But yes, the pole nest appears to be more stable and maybe can support the extra bird better.
Thanks to Annie, Lorene, and Glenn for sharing their ideas about the visitor fledgling that seemed to be accepted as family by everyone in Rachel’s and Carson’s nest. If the visitor was from the chimney nest, I can definitely understand why 2 or 3 almost full grown osplets, crammed together down inside a chimney along with the adult feeding them, would make for unbearably tight quarters, so that’s a very plausible reason for one of them coming over to visit with the nearby “cousins”(?) in a nest with a lot more open space. It’s always exciting watching the nest cam because you never know what you might see next! !-)
Maybe one of our chicks is dating 😂 brought home to meet the family. Does anyone know if they pick a mate to fly south with?
They go solo. The female may leave weeks before the male.
Karen, I may be wrong, but I don’t think the fledglings will be thinking about picking a mate until they’re 3 (or 4?) years old. If they’re anything like juvenile eagles, they’ll hang out in groups of other juvies until they’re ready to find a partner in Scotland and start a family of their own.
laid 4 eggs, not played
From what I can tell, here’s what’s happening: At 5:35, with 4 chicks in the nest, Carson brought back a fish. After about a minute, one of the chicks too control of it and continued eating it alone (and still is). At 6:16, Rachel dropped off a second fish, which was promptly grabbed by another chick which is still eating it. The other 2 chicks and Carson are waiting patiently for leftovers. I have no idea which chick is which (or which is #4 from another nest). The sequence is too long to post, so the play-by-play is the best I can do.
Thanks! I did see the smallest, I think Charlie, snag the “tail end” of the first fish at 1650..having a bit of a challenge figuring out how to finish the last bite.. Interesting dynamics brining in another chick…and more work for the providers. Headway finally made on the second fish with inexperienced chick..the 4th looking interested, then Rachel taking claim, but sharing.
That works…….good job Glenn
I just missed the additional fish at 1818 or so…see new fish and the other still being eaten, but not sure who is who with the swap…anyone notice?
Has the fourth osprey gone home at all today or is he/she dining with our family?
I think it’s Rachel, Carson and the 3 chicks. Family photo attached.
3:30 pm 7/27/2022
4 Juvies in this pic
3:28p looks like 4 chicks ???
Mom is back, 5 in the nest, no fish.
Three of these troops need to put their helmets on cause when food arrives the Sgt. at arms will probably create havoc.
still lined up. looks like the chicks are waiting for a bus!!!
7/27 10:23 am It will be interesting to see what happens when Rachel brings back lunch. Will they share with the 4th chick or have a food fight?
well she is back, and no lunch
my first attempt at a screen shot. July 27 2022
Mama originally played 4 eggs. Now a newcomer makes 4 chicks. Funny about nature.
Does anybody know what the head bobbing signifies?
Foster’s back. Seems that Rachel is interested in something below the next?
WHO is “Delta”??? This reminds me of an 8 AM physics class I had in college when my brain hadn’t awakened fully and everything was confusing. (The fact that I was an English major didn’t help.)
It sure is crowded! Who’s who? My guess is (front to back – Bravo, Charlie, Alpha, and Delta the foster osprey? Plus Rachel. Name cards would help!
Now (8:30am, 7/27), Delta flew off.
For those who haven’t been to the site, there is a second nest about 100 yards away on a chimney at the Waquoit Bay Visitor Center. The birds on the two nests seem to coexist peacefully. We have no way of telling this for certain, but it’s possible they are all related and one big extended family! The 4th fledgling (Delta) could be a chick from the other nest.
So are you thinking that Carson has 2 mates or could delta be Rachel’s grandchild? I’m thinking back when an adult osprey landed in the nest and it was proposed it might’ve been Rachel’s from a previous pregnancy?
Hmmm, if Carson is feeding two families it would explain why he’s frequently slow in bringing fish to the nest we’re watching.
No, the second nest has its own breeding pair. I’m not sure how many chicks there are in the chimney nest – at least 2, I think. Maybe one of the adults in the second nest is a sibling of either Rachel or Carsen. That would make all the chicks first cousins. This is all conjecture though.
It’s kind of an avian version of a soap opera, trying to guess whose kids are whose. 🙂
This is a screen capture I made of the first “visitor” we saw in the nest back in June. It’s presence was totally accepted by Rachel, so maybe it’s one of Rachel’s offspring from a prior season — and maybe one of the two adults in the other nest that “Delta” recently fledged from?
Sounds good to me. How little the fledgling was compared to now
Full house for sure!
How many chicks are there in the other nest? Has anybody seen Carson delivering any fish to that nest this season? Is this unusual to have two active nests so close together with no animosity amongst the adults and now amongst the fledged chicks? It does seem like one big extended family!
For those who turn in late, a picture of the four fledglings in the nest morning of July 27 around 8 am.
Annie, “the FOUR fledglings”? Have I missed somethng?
5 birds in the nest — but it looks like it’s Rachel and FOUR fledglings. Huh???
The visitor(?) that was perched on the north side of the nest just flew, then circled over the nest. While I was typing this, it’s returned.
Where is the nearest nest to this one? What surprises me is that no one seems to mind or even notice the visitor.
I was thinking of flying in myself but I went to Brewster as I prefer striper over scup
Glad this was posted. I saw the same thing-4 fledglings and Rachel but I figured-that can’t be
I think mom and charlie are eating now
Wow
Standing room only in the nest
4 juvenile birds on this nest????
1:12am Wed. Mom watching the three kids stand as they sleep, another required behavior to leave the nest.
😍
Exactly……great observation
Rachel, Bravo & Charlie seem to be sharing a mid afternoon snack, with Alpha standing guard.
Hi everyone, this is Hannah from Waquoit Bay. Now that our chicks are flying you may be curious, where are they? When they are not in the nest the chicks are most likely looking for food. Often times I see them circling the bay. Now and again they may perch on a nearby tree. One of the staff at the Reserve captured something rather unusual. These images are from Bob Cole. He noticed one of the chicks on the ground. Since the birds are not so used to flying, we assume that the bird was just taking a rest. They have all been seen in the nest since these photos were taken so we know that the chicks are just fine. Flying practice takes a couple of months as they need to prep for their long journeys south coming up this fall!
Might have been Charlie today if that was taken around 830am…there was some take off/landing struggles…lol I was going to swing over today and take a look, cooler day…but work is taking over…maybe tomorrow.
The photo was taken last Thursday!
The 3 chicks 7/26 ~1:15 pm
I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with her for a little longer before she’s ready to set off on her own. 🙂
Alpha can stay…..just play nice.