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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.
22:04 still trying to fly away.
Just before 22:00. Rain started. Chicks are flapping their wings like crazy but looks like rain might be holding them down. Wonder if they want to go to the trees for protection. Rachel just watching
How do you know?
Rachel with one chick – and a white feather pulled out of place on her left wing.
It was interesting to see that when there were two fish and no-one would share with the third, Rachel was near by, flew in and took one of the fish to the third.
3 juveniles and Rachel
Rachel feeding the 3rd chick
Carson just flew in a portion of a fish. Don’t know who’s who of the 3 chicks but two of them are eating. We need to mark them so we can differentiate!
Fish brought live and flapping!
7 am
Saw that too and one of the 3 chicks just takes it for him/herself! As Dena calls it – Break-fish for 1 has been served lol!
so I’m thinking that the visiting osprey chick has been in nest since at least 6:43. about that time there were 2 chicks and at first I thought one was trying to mount the other but perhaps the chick was trying to get the other to leave the nest. (s)he did, but then returned as did Rachel. Rachel and the resident chick have been cornering the visiting chick and continue to verbally screech at it 🤷♀️
must have been a big day for these two, in deep sleep. So cool to see them together in flight & on nest. They seem to have bonded. Totally different than Alpha, Bravo & Charlie.
I noticed this last night and was surprised that they sleep so close to the edge of the nest. Don’t fall
Selfish sibling 😞
At 20:30 7/28 one of the juveniles had the last 1/4 of a fish. Over the next 4 minutes the female made 3 attempts to get some of it and 3 times her offspring gave her the beak hook to the top of the head.
Looks like one of the chicks cought thier first fish. Did anyone see him fly in with it? It was around 11am
Around that time I saw Rachel fly in with a small fish (or portion of fish). She gave it to the chick without eating and then flew off.
thanks for the update
I stopped at the WBNERR one my way to Falmouth (at 7:46am) and took this pic of Rachel (has to be her) perched on top of the camera! Then on my way back to Mashpee I stopped again (at 8:34) and got this pic of Delta and Echo in this neighboring tree (look in upper right quadrant).
Look in upper right quadrant of pic and there are Delta and Echo.
Thanks for posting these Merc!
Thanks great shots!
Great pics
Incredible views of Osprey family enjoying their day outside of the nest. Did you take on an iPhone or actual camera, great clarity
Great pic. 11
On the 4th bird that was at the nest yesterday, it was definitely a third juvenile, not Carsen. This did occur last year, as Surferboy remembered, and it was suggested that the extra chick was from the other nest that is nearby (on the chimney of the Waquoit Bay Visitor Center). We can’t know this for sure, but since it was tolerated by Rachel and the others, they may be related (the chicks could be cousins!). Meanwhile, I’m not able to tell the chicks apart, so it’s anyone’s guess which is which. For reference purposes, why don’t we start backwards in the NATO alphabet and call the extra chick “Zulu”? It will be interesting to see if it consistently returns or if yesterday was just a one-time visit. Maybe someone on the ground can confirm this at some point.
Nice idea. Zulu it is.
That’s a great idea! Plus there are two other nests very close by, one in the woods by the boatyard and one on a pole across the street from the boatyard. Maybe it’s getting to be a family compound 😂.Hope the chick returns, keeps it interesting. Rachel is being a good hostess 😉
One chick grabs the food from mom & doesn’t share.
I wonder if the third chick was visiting from the other nest that’s close by
8pm 4th osprey left the nest.
Is the fourth one Carson?? Still there at 7:58 pm
So now all 3 were being fed. The chick in the middle – i believe – to be – as surferboy says – Delta! His feathers are just a tad lighter than the other two chicks.
july 27 2023 &:50 pm 4 osprey in the nest. Appears Rachel is feeding her two chicks. Who is the fourth one?
Hi is that the 3rd baby?
There appear to be 3 adult chicks in the nest and Rachel – hmmmmmm. I am speculating this because the color of their feathers is brown/white; whereas Rachel is just dark brown. Two are being fed by Rachel and the other one is just perched. I do not believe it is Carson either. Interesting . . . .
7:30 and there are three chicks in the nest. One watching the feeding. It is a chick right? Anyone else see this?
I’m so confused! It seems there is another large chick?
This happened last year. If I remember right, they called the 4th chick delta.
This Sunday, the Waquoit Bay Reserve will be having a free “Cookout on the Bay” in honor of their 35th anniversary! For more details: http://waquoitbayreserve.org/event-registration/?ee=1372
Glen, thank you for posting and I would have been there in a heartbeat but we will not be around on Sunday – bummer.
Did that packing mesh finally blow away?
So it would seem. *phew*
Breakfast served 👍
ITS 3AM ONLY RACHEL IS THE ONLYI ONE N THE NEST AT ABOUT 10 PM ALL THREE WERE WATING FOR CARSON TO DROP OFF FISH …JOAN+++++++++
No fish delivery, time to get off nest & go fishing
Or go hungry 🤷♀️
Hanging out
Looks like that mesh thing is gone…did anyone see it go over nest?
At around 3pm on 7/26, one of the bids, possibly Delta, had the netting caught in its talons and then flew off. Returned 20-30 minutes later without the netting.
Thanks Kathy! I was concerned one of the Ospreys would do just that. Happy Delta ( ?) was able to shake it off. Definitely could have been a tragedy…
No one home, baking in the hot sun…smart!
BreakFISH🐟
LOL!!! Well said!
Everyone getting their share tonight
21:15 Mom and two babies sharing a late night dinner.
19:23 update 😀 all is well
18:45 Tue 07-25-2023
Chick alone in nest, calling out. The other chick flew in. Now they both are calling out. Looks like the chick has its talons caught in the mesh. The mesh not cloth, maybe light aluminum? They are both calling out real loud, for Mom and Dad to come back for the rescue?
Sunrise over Waquoit
Very beautiful light!
7/26 18:39 oh no, the fish Carson brought back flapped right of the nest
Lol!!!
too funny hope Glenn can post video
Sometimes the recordings randomly stop and have to be restarted, Unfortunately, this was one of those gaps so it’s not available. Sorry – I would have liked to see that myself!
Oh well. thanx for all the videos you’ve been able to post. greatly appreciate it.👍
I wonder if bringing the live fish was on purpose to start teaching them how it will be to eat after they start catching fish on their own