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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.
Chimney Osprey activity
Just gorgeous! Thank you
Lucky for squirrel Charlie is not an Eagle 😄
Lucky Mom and Dad were not home
There’s a squirrel on the next
Glenn posted the squirrel, bold little creature, all over the next. Check it out
Charlie in full flight
Some comparisons or observations for perspective……..The Brewster juvies (there are two) are still completely reliant on their parents for food. These two fledged on the same day as #1 and #2 on this nest. By the way how come nobody mentions #1 & #2 anymore?? Anyhoo the non dominate Brewster juvie spends most of its time on the nest. Much the same at the Oxford nest, reliance on parents for food and one of the three there hangs around the nest. Gloucester the same thing on food and and one of three hanging around the nest. So in my mind #3 here is far from off schedule. Sorry I use #s as I guess I have a little PTSD when it comes to the phonetic alphabet.
Thanks for these observations of other #3 chicks. It’s reassuring to know that our #3 King Charles is right on track for success!!
Thank you for this great information on the other nests and chicks progress.
Our #3 could be Queen Charlene. Lol. We may never know…..
Thanks for your update…interesting to hear about other Ospreys behavior
Charlie’s back yard
My husband was able to capture Charlie in flight
Awesome shot – thanks Dena!
Truly amazing to see Charlie in flight. Very interesting to watch him guard the nest too. He would do a huge loop then swoop down towards us then up to the nest screeching the whole time…
Just saw a squirrel on the nest 08-14-2022 @ 20:30:00 ish, maybe you could post
Amazing.
WOW — NICE! Thank your husband for that great capture! You have to have a steady hand and a quick eye to get a shot like that! 🙂
He’s a fine art photographer on cape, I knew he would be able to snap a few pics to get close up views of our Charlie.
Thank you for these magnificent photos of our boy! I feel more confident he will be successful. Anita
You can bet he is healthy, strong & determined. So great to see him confident & in action
Wonderful picture of Charlie!
5:19pm Our King Charles is still waiting for his dinner!! Unless I missed it this past hour.Guess he has not received his invitation to dive for his own fish! Fingers crossed his loyal servants come soon. Anita
I love the name King Charles — it suits him! 🙂
looks like Charlie is screeching for a supper delivery
Chimney Osprey
Great pictures, thanks for sharing!!
joanne
Dena — What’s the giant pile of sticks on the roof to the right of the chimney? Was that part of the nest that blew off the top of the chimney? Is this the nest that we thought “Delta” (the visitor fledgling) might have come from?
sticks are those falling away from the nest & from what Glenn had written previously that Delta may have been one of the chicks from chimney nest
Thanks, Dena! It’s been such an interesting season with the new nest, and I’ve been so fortunate to be able to watch this endearing family of ospreys from a thousand miles away along with all of you local osprey fans! Hope Rachel and Carson both return in the spring to start the second season’s adventures.
Watching Charlie live
4:03pm Charlie flew off towards the water. Bet he has gone fishin’ too !
He’s a big bird now. 🙂
…..Sitting at the edge of the nest, constantly looking skyward, grooming….
a new world for #3! ❤️
Our tiny little baby osplet really is a big bird now! He’s done himself right proud!
8/14/22 14:28 I just came in from outside and see Charlie is back, but I have no idea when he returned to the nest. He was definitely gone a long time — many hours compared to before when he’d only be away for minutes.
Charlie is busy with grooming duties at 1:56 pm aug 14.
13:31 # 3 returns
Did you see if he/she brought a fish?
No fish
He’s not ready to catch his first fish yet. That could take a while. Carson will continue to provide food in the meantime.
Sorry, surferboy — I didn’t notice your previous post with the time Charlie arrived back at the nest. That means he was away from the nest for almost 4 1/2 hours — a huge move forward for him. I think everybody is saying “Whew!”! 🙂
Hopefully Charlie scores a nice juicy 🐠 to go with his new found freedom. And yes I may suffer empty nest syndrome 😊
Charlie’s still away from the nest. This is a big step and what we all wanted and hoped to see! If anyone goes to the Reserve, please report back any observations. I hope we don’t all suffer from empty nest syndrome!
#3 returned to the nest at 10:15 for less than 30 seconds
This is WONDERFUL news — what we’ve all been hoping and waiting for! 🙂
A wonderful day indeed!
10:15. OOOPHHHH………HAPPY DAY !!!!!🤗
9:32 am – nest still empty
Charlie gone fishing
9:15 am-Charlie took off over 10 min ago and still hasn’t returned. Is this one of his longest forays from the nest?
8/14/22, at 9:05 a.m. Charlie is not in the nest.
Longest time I’ve seen away from nest
I agree! Happy Day!
8/14/22, 8:55 a.m. Charlie enjoying breakfast at the rear of the nest, balancing himself/herself on the wood beam.
Charlie having breakfast…did not see delivery
Male dropped off half eaten fish
Charlie taking lots of shorts flights this morning. Looks like today may be a learn to fish day…way to go Charlie!
Charlie having 1/2 fish snack.. Happy Charlie got several visits from Rachel & Carson with lots of fish. Fun to watch him practice flight too
8:08pm…WOW….another fish tonight. So happy to see Charlie really going at it. I am more hopefull for him after all the activity today.🙏
Stopped in the estuary on Friday morning, saw chick C on the nest but no other Osprey around. Did notice that the nest on chimney was empty and had fallen apart. Also, on Friday morning was in Falmouth Walmart parking lot where there is a nest on a light pole. There were 3 chicks on various light poles in the parking lot. They were healthy and saw an adult bring food to one. I think C will be fine. Being fed on a regular basis that I have seen, and seems to be getting stronger. More flights from the nests and more food.
Rachael came swooping down and scared off an intruder, Charlie was visibly upset he stopped eating for awhile and was shaking. Mom stayed for while and Charlie resumed eating. Appears dad is now watching out. I have been tuning in and out since 10 and Charlie has been eating this whole time. I think mom and dad are building up his strength 😍
Observing nest activity beginning at 1:25 pm Aug 13. I could see that Charlie had another fish (third one today ?) and I could clearly make out the tail. Charlie busy eating when the shadow of a visitor appeared from the camera area and entered the nest. Charlie not happy. Visitor (Carson ??) is on the right side of the nest and Charlie opposite on the left side. He/she is alternately protecting the fish and grabbing bites of it. Occasionally staring at one another.
That’s a really big bird. Think it is Carson?
Look how small Charlie is compared to the other Osprey
Your visitor is the female
1:30 another bird in he nest with Charlie. Could be Carson?
Looks like the Osprey landed on the camera
8/13/22 13:08 Another osprey is buzzing the nest and Charlie is defending his domain – screeching and mantling whatever’s left of his last fish. He’s got moxie — good for him!
I was at WBNERR this morning and took a few pix from the ground. I didn’t directly observe any of this morning’s fish deliveries, but noticed a few others soaring above the nest. I could not tell who they were.
Osprey above the nest.
Beautiful Glenn!
Here’s me from the webcam (look to the right of the nest).
👋 😂
Enjoyed seeing all of your photos from this morning!
looks like carson (?) is in the nest visiting charlie.
Carson needs to have a stern father-son talk with Charlie and tell him he needs to get his a-s in gear if he’s hoping to migrate southward in September or October. He also needs to stop feeding Charlie in the nest!
I guess that would be called “tough love” but for sure Charlie needs some motivation 💕
Don’t think the talk went very well
Right after your post Carson flew off, as Charlie continued eating
Happy to have the casa to himself
I think we should play Whitney Houston’s”One Moment in Time” that she sang at the l988 Olympics for Charlie to give him some encouragement!!!!!!
It wouldn’t hurt! 🙂
Charlie just got a second fish. Did not see it delivered. Aug 13, 2022, 9:45 a.m.
9:41 another partial fish dropped off in the nest for Charlie
Another headless fish delivery at 938
Wow, no sooner did Charlie gobble up the tail…and B’BAM… incoming another fish 😁👍🏼