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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.
Carson just brought a fish. There was a little scuffle and the fish went overboard. 6:40pm
No dinner tonight 🤷♀️
So glad to know it wasn’t just MY iPad that couldn’t get the video!!
Thank you! Not sure exactly who to thank for fixing the problem 🙂
cannot see anything about who i call my family the osprey’s…are you shutting down for some reason? this is very upsetting for this 83 year old elder
No visual for the last couple of hours; just an error message.
Ditto. Both my iPhone and iPad get this error message
Message I have
Becoming less concerned about the mesh object. It seems to change shape easily and gets blown by the wind–that might indicate that it is not a metal mesh; rather, likely a string mesh, like part of a laundry bag or netting. The chicks have gotten it stuck on their feet occasionally and then step out of it easily. Certainly worth watching, but possibly less lethal if not stiff and sharp like aluminum screening.
Those first flight videos!!! WOW!!! I love that both Echo and Delta did a little fly-by in the distance so we could see them in action. What must that first flight feel like? I am filled with awe and joy. Thank you so much for capturing the moments and sharing them with us!
I asked before but I think it got lost, can you tell me where I can see those first flight videos?
Scroll up from the comments section and click on “view highlights from 2023”. Great highlights.
Mom and sibling watching landing practice.
“A whole new world…” Both chicks flying loops around the nest area together at 06:40–magnificent!
Breakfast feast for all with two fish
Poor echo had no food
Mistaken, both feet on fish. 🥹
Delta eating a fish while Echo watches…07/23 9pm
One is stuck on that mesh 🥺
Looks like both feet stuck on that mesh as that one is eating.
Agree with Sandy re wire. Saw one of the chicks catch a talon on the wire – fortunately shook it free
Ospreys are very vocal this evening!
Nice to see the family together tonight.
Both “kids” home for the night. Mama Rachel there too. Like old times. 😉
remember…..
https://www.capecodtimes.com/videos/news/2022/04/08/epic-osprey-rescue-harwich-2013/9517699002/
Glenn, maybe theFalmouth Osprey group could come and remove it before a tragedy.?
Rescue needed.
That wire is deadly and needs to be removed.
remember the Harwich chick?
Thankfully he got it off, but very dangerous.
I mentioned this wire mesh thing below in post. That’s exactly what I thought may happen. Worse one could fly away with it caught up & then land in a tree or something and end up entangled…didn’t even want to say or think of that happening but it certainly is possible. Let’s all 🙏 somehow someway wire gets out of nest.
yes, definitely dangerous.
Chick stuck on the wire.
dinner is served and not a moment too soon-mom and the twins were loudly voicing their need to eat
so—it looks like delta made it “home” after a night out carousing🙃
At 15;36:19, another juvenile landed in the nest and the one there didn’t like it and it looked like they were fighting for a bit
If you look in the upper right quadrant of the pic, you’ll see – who I believe to be – Delta. Echo is perched in the nest. I dropped by earlier and checked around but don’t think I saw Rachel or Carson in any of the adjacent trees. There was a family of Osprey on the nest that is on the house.
great pic. now i can see where rachel perches on the camera pole
Excellent picture, many thanks!
Great shot!
Glen – thank you for posting each chick fledging! It’s very exciting to see.
Oh my gosh – those videos are precious! I am still smiling. Cannot imagine what that first flight must feel like. Did not imagine them soaring – in my mind I thought they’d hover and plop down under the nest platform. Just wow.
I was up at 2:30 this morning and was concerned about Echo sleeping right on the edge of the nest- worried he/she might fall off.
So now relieved flight was successful. Very exciting!!!
PBS. Osprey learn to Fly and Fish
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en-us&cs=0&sxsrf=AB5stBjyVUZ0BKES2bLEtueYFrsR6PCEMQ:1690034151463&q=Osprey+learning+to+fly&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOtIPqu6KAAxX7FlkFHfcSDoUQpboHKAF6BAgBEAM&biw=1080&bih=732&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5f749df2,vid:SEDjqpAPx9I
Soon the young ones will fish like this. (Screenshot from osprey photographer YouTube video. Great slow motion close ups).
Great close up!
Thanks Sandy. Its from this clip. Some fantastic slow motion video close-ups, especially after the 5 minute mark. https://youtu.be/JOfk4_o6Au4
9:37 echo took off again and can be seen flying around the nest and returned 9:40
has delta returned at all?
Fishing ….they learn by practicing.
https://www.google.com/search?q=teaching+osprey+tofish&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:96d32552,vid:2FIKN2A0XD8
😄 okay now I understand, I commented before reading the comments from this morning. Thank you Glenn for the fledging videos. Nice to see Echo flying off in the distance. I did not realize it took so long to teach them to fish. Nice to know we will still see them back in the nest as they continue to grow into there adult life.
No one teaches Osprey how to fish. They are hard wired.
That was 07-22-2023 09:01
It appears the chick, presuming Echo, came back to sleep and is still there. Nice to hear it is communicating with Rachel and Carson. One sounds close and the other further away. Maybe directing it to the ocean to teach it how to catch breakfast 😀
Both chicks have left the nest! I just posted the recordings of the two fledging yesterday and this morning.
Thanks!
video? Where do I find that?
So now my next question is, that chick that left the nest today is hungry, I didn’t see him get fed at all yesterday. So does he “know” how to fish or will mom and dad have to teach him? Will he be able to eat today? It seems my local osprey chicks do come back to the nest after they fly. I don’t know if they sleep there but I’ve seen them many times standing in the nest like a rest pit stop. Will these chicks come back I wonder?
They’ll lilkely come back to the nest to eat and sleep, but not consistently. They’re both out exploring their new world, resting on nearby trees or other structures and probably dining in other places as well. They’re too young to fish for themselves so are still dependent on the adults for food. This skill will be learned in the coming weeks.
It would be neat if there was a cam pointed to the water so we could see them fishing
Congratulations Delta and Echo, great job Rachel and Carson!!👏☺️