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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.
Sad news!!! My friend who lives in Falmouth told me this next was blown away in a recent storm. The Osprey Project is planning of installing a new platform ASAP. Still I wonder how this will affect Rachel and Carson and a new generation. I am just so sad about this.
Excellent news! Thanks to all involved, my husband just said you know you are in Cape Cod when there’s an Osprey rapid response team lol. Will be interesting to watch.
Happy to know the nest will have some needed repairs taken care of in the morning 👍🏼 Good luck to the OP repair crew 😉.
Watching from Florida. Maybe try a used satellite dish instead of wooden beams. Drill holes in the bottom to let the water out and attach it to a good sturdy base.
Oh my! I am glad to hear the platform can be rebuilt soon! Just as we have a better camera – but it sure looks like the old one was rotten. Maybe this is why Rachel and Carson were not working on the nest itself!
Good to know I wasn’t the only one thinking that their hearts just weren’t into building the nest. Kinda like they knew something wasn’t right and thinking what to do next. They tried to fill the middle gap a few times and then started staring at it a lot
Thank you Glenn for keeping us informed with the updates at the top of this page, above the the live cam feed. Thank you to everyone involved for responding so quickly to the situation. It is comforting to know Reserve staff are watching closely 😊
Replay the video of the nest blowing off the platform and it appears that there was NO middle to nest. The nest may have had a serious problem for eggs or chicks this season.
Did someone move the camera somehow? Suddenly it is further away than it was the other day!!!!
Looks like the nest is in disarray. Maybe the gusty winds played havoc on it.
From highlights
https://www.friendsofmashpeenationalwildliferefuge.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Nest-platform-blows-off-4-1-23.mp4
here is the nest blowing away
oh my gosh! Thank you for sharing. I can’t believe that happened. I see the comment – above the video – that says we will assist rebuilding the base and they will build the nest. This will be interesting to monitor.
Sandy, thank you for posting the link.
Did the nest break away?
Yes. Nest and boards. Apparently the wind blew it. Glenn will try to post pictures later. See his earlier post.
See Sandy’s post from an hour ago. She has the link of it blowing off today about 12:30p.
Glenn, what is the estimated cost to replace platform?
Glenn, we all witnessed mating since their return. Do you know approximately the time frame from mating to egg laying. Wondering what they will do if egg is coming soon
Nest blowing away posted in Highlights…so sad! I’m really surprised platforms are not inspected each season.
Relieved no eggs or chicks in next…thank goodness!
Starting over?
Platform totally gone. Pic is last summer with Charlie
A pallet would make a good base to get through this year, then permanent repairs in the late fall.
Great idea!
I agree. Real good idea.
Oh my God the platform collapsed! I just tuned back in don’t know when it happened maybe Glenn can find that are poor osprey!
1pm 4/01 Rachel or Carson just came back
Thank you !!! Have access to a bucket truck or maybe the fire dept can help ? Go to it and good luck !!! I feel so sad for Rachel and Carson 🙏
This was awful . Part of platform is gone too
Did it blow away thi morning?
We’re scrambling to see what we can do as quickly as possible. I’ll post the clip when I can. 🙁
The female was on the nest when it blew off but I’m sure she is uninjured.
Sure she’s fine. I watched it live and she jumped off before it went over.
Time to rebuild the platform and get it back up so the birds can continue!
Oh no 😥
Oh no! Nest blown away!!! Also platform seems unstable too
Oh my God, I watched the nest blow off live.
Oh no! Is there a recording of this available anywhere?
Glenn can retrieve it and post it to the highlights
Where are the highlights located? I’m a newbie here.
12:30 nest blows away
Thank you Cape Cod Times for telling us about Season 2. And thank you Comcast for making the camera possible.
Really much better than last year. Love the addition of sound!
Clearly not an April Fools joke. Very cool, makes me want to be an osprey for a day!
Both on nest 8:50am
I recently watched …pbs.org season of the osprey. This was excellent, I recommend it. Now I’ll tune in to this webcam frequently.
Does the light stay on the nest all night?
This is amazing. Just started watching today. Watching Rachel shoo the males away was very interesting. Its night time, where is she now?
Does look as if the female is calling and searching… to no avail lately. There was mating behavior a few days ago, but no male recently.I’m hoping all is well.
what is going on at the nest?? Haven’t seen Carson for at least 2 days now and the female doesn’t look like Rachel. This female has a more speckled breast. Was the nest stolen away? If so why is there no male? Any one know what is happening Glenn Davis?? any perspective on this?
Carson has no real need to be in the nest at this point since he’s not the provider of food yet. Someone reported some mating behavior a couple of days ago. See previous posts for my thoughts about whether it is Rachel and Carson back this year. Based on my own comparisons and what is typical, I believe they are, but others may have different opinions.
Thanks. Now it looks like the camera has been moved back from where it was a few days ago. Strange things seems to be happening here beside s shooting poop at the camera lol
Rachel’s daughter, ?
perhaps it’s Rachel Junior.