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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.
take-off at 13:43!!!!!!!!!!
13:43 We have lift off
13:43….One just fledged!
Just drove through WBNERR and saw another nest on the chimney of the one of the buildings, that may explain the unwanted intruders.
All squawking in unison.. must be super hungry
SOS. Mesh stuck on Osprey claw
What is that mesh in the nest? It looks like it’s stuck on the one chick’s foot!
Don’t know but Rachel brought it to the nest and it looked like a branch was in it
Just saw a young osprey at Walmart nest in Falmouth flying back to the nest, came in kind of low but made it 😄
I think today is the day!
Above the nest!
Looks like fun!!! Thx for sharing
I just posted a clip of one of yesterday’s near lift-offs. It will be interesting to see if they fledge today!
Houston, we have a liftoff!
great photo, Glenn!
Aerodynamically amazing!
Up up and away???
oh wow!!!
Beautiful photo, Dena!
up, up and away!
My bet is Sunday or Monday for the first to fledge. One seems to be a bit stronger than other, that’s the only way I’ve been able to tell
them a part😊
It’s 18:00 and a few minutes ago Rachel brought in a massive fish!!
17:24 real close to taking flight 😀
Thu Jul 20 17:08 Sounds like Rachel and Carson are calling the chicks out of the nest to join them where they are 😄
Almost!
at 15;40:50, one of the birds almost flew up out of sight of the cam and again at 15:46:30 – so close!!
Can’t wait to see them fly
ready to go….so exciting…
Rachel giving pep talk about taking a leap of faith 🤗
Too cute!
Ok I’ve been watching since about 7 am. I know the minute I turn this off and run errands, they are going to fly!
same here but now I’m checking on my cell phone 😂
😂
😆
It was like 10:46 AM?
😂😂 double googly head when the UPS truck drove in, anybody else see that?🤣
Sorry to have missed that! Maybe Glenn can post it at some point. I agree they look pretty ready. I looked back yesterday at last year‘s first fledge too and did the math like Dianne but agree I think they’re going to go earlier. I forgot about the poop all over the camera lens. It was shocking to revisit that with us peering through the gloom🥴😣🤣
I thought for sure he was going to take off. First at 08:58:25 and then even higher at 09:00:15 and again at 09:10. They are so close to taking off!!
I saw that, too!
👋
Todays the day for sure
Completely agree! I’m sure hoping I will be watching to see it live!
last season the first chick fledged on 7/20 but was hatched 3 days earlier than this year but I agree- looks likely this year’s chicks will be airborne soon
one momentary liftoff 6:31am
Wings! Could today be lift off???
Synchronized flapping 😹
Awesome pic!
thanx. They are getting close to the edge of the nest
Fish delivery 5:47am
It won’t be long now one of the twins is determined to fly and has been airborne from one side of the nest to the other (5:16 ish am) sure hope he doesn’t miscalculate, would he be able to flap back to the edge of the nest, or would he try to keep flying? 🤷♀️
07-20-2023 03:22 am
Rachel must be spending the night with Carson. Could this be the beginning of teaching the chicks independence? Instead of food coming to them, they begin to desire flying to catch their own? Maybe Carson will begin to teach them today.
07-19-2023 23:29 the kids are home alone, sleeping soundly.
I think Rachel’s trying to teach the kids to eat for themselves, which at least one of them has done in the past…but at least one of them is begging “feed me!”
4:50PM Finally the other baby is getting something to eat.
The second youngster frequently waits until the more aggressive one gets full, then gets to eat all he want without having to fight for a turn to eat.
This is very sad to watch. 4:45PM and the other baby hasn’t gotten anything to eat.
Looks like only one baby is being fed. 4:30 PM
I just spoke with CCMNH about the missing chick. About a week ago it disappeared from the nest overnight when there is no camera. They don’t know what happened. They did go out into the marsh looking but found nothing. Also Mom likes to perch on top of the camera so when the chick looks alone it is not. So sad, they also had a very young chick pushed out of the nest early on. So glad our chicks are doing so well.
Thank you Betty, good research. Surprised they did not mention the unhatched egg.
The chick that hatched from the egg that was laid in that nest died from starvation. The other chick that was fostered into the nest was older and bigger, so it was keeping that one from eating. There wasn’t enough fish being brought to the nest, either. I watched that chick die. It did not disappear from the nest. I saw the female remove the body a day or two later. So sad.