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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.
No audio
I don’t have any either
5:50 am mating graphic
4:48 PM – Rachel and Carson(?) seem to be on surveillance duty on the nest. Back-to-back, facing opposite directions. Presumably to avoid any additional problems with any potential interlopers?
Good (facing the camera) mating at 9:33 AM
There’s no audio
Yup. As of the storm, audio gone. The beasties look no worse for wear.
been no audio all morning
Mating @ 13:31
They have done a great job this season getting that nest ready. Well done to Rachel & Carson
Good morning all, I don’t know if anyone has an answer to this, but the Osprey nest on route 28 right across the street from East Falmouth Marina has disappeared. It was there two days ago with a pair of osprey on it and now it is gone the nest the platform everything.
So cute. The male brought acorns to the nest.
sorry they were pinecones not acorns.
Glenn, there is an osprey nest about 1/4 mile down 28 from Waquoit Research Reaerve, on right side when heading towards Falmouth that is now gone. The poor female osprey is sitting on top of telephone pole wondering what happened and male is circling around with fish in talons. Is there anyone that can do something about a nest replacement? I looked around the telephone pole but did not see sight of fallen nest.
Contact the Falmouth Osprey Project. They keep track of all of the area nests and would know if it was removed and any plans to replace it.
https://www.falmouthtogetherwecan.org/theospreyproject
Done! Thank you.
I saw a cherrypicker truck there. I think they were removing the nest.
Mating. 7:20AM
Last year’s April Fools was Rachel and Carson’s nest breaking. This year’s “prank” was another couple trying to steal their home.
…hopefully next time it will just be a fish leaping into their claws or something.
My husband took pic at Amrita Island/squeteague harbor
Lovely!!!
Great photo!
More mating at 10:30 AM today
more mating just now at 3:42pm 4/1/2024
Do the female and male arrive at the same time? Or does one come first followed by the other? Just wondering seeing as these videos seem to have both male and female – I spotted one in Centerville today for the first time (unaccompanied, so far)!
The male and female birds do not travel together during their migration and the male typically arrives first. At the Waquoit Bay nest, a different male appeared first (on 3/17) and it was not clear when Carson arrived but there were some territorial battles in the past few days where we think he has reclaimed the nest.
Attempted mating at 17:47
17:12 Ol reliable brings her half a fish and she takes off with it…….
Just taking my first look this season.
It would be nice to know if it’s the “real” Rachel and Carson we’ve been following. Alas, we may never know for certain.
Karen, welcome back! You’ve missed a lot of action, but check out the highlights page for a review of some of the recent battles over the past few days. Apparently Carson was not the first bird to get to the nest this year, but I *think* it’s the original Rachel and Carson that we’re seeing now.
So much drama right?!
It is them….this nest is lucky as there is no sign of the long presiding mating pair at the Gloucester nest. The oxford nest has its presiding female ( no mistaking this girl, she sports a necklace like Marilyn Monroe on the red carpet) but I have not seen the presiding male. The Patchogue nest sees activity but I’m not sure who is frequenting it. The Brewster nest sees the same. My big disappointment is Dunrovin Mt…….no sight of anything yet and NO is is not too early there…….
poor carson has a pretty deep gash-hope it doesn’t get infected-but oh so happy to have our original rachel and carson back!!
i just noticed it after posting but could that red on his left leg be blood?
My two cents 3/30 4:56 PM I think the female is the resident one from previous seasons. I think she is rejecting all advances by the “freckled” male. The intruder is not the male from the last two seasons, if it was the battle would be over and he would be King of this nest…………..
I think you’re right, and based on what I saw this morning, I think Carson is back as King of the Hill. Here’s a mating shot from today. This male’s chest is nearly pure white, like the old Carson. Note the red spot on his chest – looks like a wound from yesterday’s battles!
🙏
sure looks like it.
I posted another long clip of skirmishes on and above the nest from just after 9am this morning. One bird is clearly a female, the other 2 most likely males and I think one may be the old Carson. The action continued for over 15 minutes, but I can’t post a video that long.
In the upper left corner of the nest it looks like an osprey trying to get a stick from a bush on the ground. I thought it was the wind but did see what I thought was an osprey working on getting it loose.
Maybe it was the wind, just seemed to be moving around a lot more that the breeze 🤷♀️
has anyone witnessed any successful mating or nest building since the 2nd male showed up? to me, it seems like “rachel” is not interacting with the male with a bib.
I think this is Rachel and one of her chicks. Last year one was slow to leave the nest. Maybe this is them. I think she is calling out to Carson. “Bring us some fish!”
Haha, I just saw someone waving at the camera from an suv! Too funny.
Excited for this years show.,👏
is there any way to put a “hood” over the camera to keep basic rain from showing on the screen? . Heavy wind and driving rain completely understand you can’t do much.
Thanks and regards,
Does anyone watch Cape Cod Museum camera? This pair needs a lesson in nest building!
Last year there were repeated incidents with an intruder osprey. Maybe he is back.
Wow! Some really fierce battles over the nest were seen yesterday. Great job to those who posted the screen shots – you’ve got amazing reactions! I added a couple of clips to the highlights. I’m tempted to call the new male Carson II (or just Carson for short, if that doesn’t create too much confusion). It’s still a mystery whether this year’s Rachel is last year’s female. Since we can’t really know for sure, what do people think about always calling the resident pair Rachel and Carson?
Maybe Carson II for now in case Carson I is running late and gets here and can retake the nest? I am still going back and forth on whether that is Rachel or not but regardless it looks like she is here to stay. Maybe Rachel with an ? until it becomes clearer if that’s her. Seems improbable ( but not impossible) that neither of them made it back ☹️. The nest we watch down on the Chesapeake Conservancy has had numerous “Tom’s “ but I think they number them I would need to check…When we are looking back on previous years (as this is a long term project now) having them numbered but with the same names seems like a good idea and might be less confusing on the look backs to see how the nest residents have changed. Just my thoughts
so-if I was writing the plot, (because I want our original Rachel and Carson), it would go like this——-Rachel returned on the 17th, no Carson around. One of her offspring (alpha, bravo?) arrives and Rachel submits to his mating but she still looks for Carson . Then Carson returns but the male first on the nest doesn’t want to relinquish his claim. has anybody noticed any mating, combined nest building etc since “Carson” returned cause I haven’t hopefully this male will go, Carson will again be with Rachel and the sun will shine tomorrow. 🙏🙏🤞🤞🫶🫶🥰🤷♀️
Perfect Glenn.
Folks may understand that these could be birds from the chimney nest or anywhere really!
The only definitive identification would be if they were tagged.
As Glenn said, best to think of a male and female here,
named Adam and Eve …..or Rachel and Carson.
lol! 🙂
Happy couple enjoying a beautiful rain free morning at 6:45 am
I can’t get live feed
The male on the nest flipped completely upside-down fending off another male!
wow! great shot👏👏👏
Holy crap! I did not think they could perform acrobatics! Impressive and great defensive actions!
who are you?..
Good question! Beautiful and excellent pic!
thanx. Barry’s shot must’ve been the second after my shot
It was a fraction of a second later. Both pics have the exact same timestamp!
there is a third osprey. around 16:18 (fri) another osprey tried to land. The female didn’t seem upset but the male osprey with the necklace chased him off
not sure -if Glenn can check the tape, maybe it’s Carlson?
Happened again at 16:36
15:59 Just observed another mating attempt by the “freckled” male. Glen was right, I was wrong. What I thought was two females on the nest the past couple of days has to be wrong. What I think now is there is a male suitor in the absence of the predominate male of this nest for the past seaons. Sorry but he is gone. Further evidence to me is, the female on this nest (if it is from last year and I think it is) allows this new suitor to land on her back but I do not see any actual copulation. The other significant thing I observe is this female constantly calls as if to call for her mate of the last few years…….Maybe I’m wrong again…………….
I am so excited to see them back! I love watching the whole process. It is very calming.
Nest building…possibly 2
https://www.birdnote.org/listen/shows/ospreys-never-stop-building
They look so cute with their head feathers all fluffed from the rain.
👍
Volume is back here:)
nope no volume
I just checked back in and the volume is back. 👍
thanx-wish the osprey would face the camera together so we could get a good look at their chest.