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Welcome to “Season Three” 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 2024 (“Season Three”)
View highlights from 2023 (“Season Two”)
View highlights from last year (“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.
I am worried about Rachel. She has been just standing over the egg swaying from side to side for almost an hour now.
yes, I noticed her swaying , hovering over her egg too. ?
She may be close to producing the second egg.
Poor Rachel… the weather she endures 🌧️She needs ☔️
Yay! Here we go! Hope all goes well
Week earlier than last year. Wonderful!
And it appears that their arrival was a week later, too!
Omg an egg!!! Rachel is sitting on the nest, haven’t seen that this year………and she just got up and surprise!!!
Yes! One beautiful egg!
Thought I was seeing things at first 🥴😂! I don’t know when the video was restored but hopefully it was recorded 🤞
4/11……I saw the egg @ 12:50pm
4/11…..12:40pm……….Cam is working now. Rachel is in incubation mode. Haven’t seen if there is an egg, though.
I cant assume that when I see a problem that everyone else is seeing (or not) what I do/don’t! I have not had video since yesterday afternoon. Glen is there a video problem now? No one else has commented so I am not sure if this is just me. I did clear my cache and other refreshes, etc., to no avail. I do miss seeing “my” peeps! Everyday is an adventure watching them 🙂
Here as well, Merc.
It’s not just you. I’m trying to figure out where the problem is and how to keep it from happening.
Carson did it again! At 9:17am he was prepping the nest (making sure the center was ready for eggs) and then he sat in the middle and spread his wings seeming to make sure it is properly sized for Rachel/eggs. I am impressed!
Glen, as a side bar, the sound has gone out several times over the past year. Has anyone tried to get to the root cause and can you find out if it is always the same problem?
Hi Merc. I searched through the comments and other than this past week, there hasn’t been an audio issue since the beginning of last July. That just required a hardware reset (but I think it took a couple of days due to availability of someone with access). This time for some reason the volume was turned down to zero. Weird since no one usually would access that setting except me and I didn’t even think to check it at first. We try to be as responsive as possible, but there are several parties involved — me (an FMNWR volunteer), certain WBNERR staff, Comcast, and HDOnTap (our streaming provider), so it can take a little time to figure out which end an issue is at. It’s great to have our community of viewers monitoring the camera status, since I get an email of all comments, and try to direct issues appropriately. We do our best!
Understood and thank you!
It appears to me that the nest is pretty bright after dark. Is that due to a low light camera or is there actually a light on the nest?
Hi Paul. This question is asked every year and it’s a good one! There is no light shining on the nest at night. The nest cam uses infrared (IR) technology for “night vision.” The IR spectrum is invisible to both humans and birds.
You might be interested to read about this and other frequently asked questions about osprey behavior and the nest, which can be found at:
https://www.friendsofmashpeenationalwildliferefuge.org/frequently-asked-questions-faqs-about-ospreys-and-the-nest-cam/
Thanks
hey surferboy-sound is back!! how do you think rachel and carson will react to the eclipse?
Two Requests……1 no more comments about audio…….It has been down since Thursday April 4…..I’m 74 years old and play close attention to this site……I get an alert every time anything is posted…….So…I open it to see a “no audio” message……this costs me money I do not have…..PLEASE NO MORE AUDIO DOWN MESSAGES…..T Y!!!! 2 Read This…..
https://thewildlifewriter.blogspot.com/2016/09/parent-offspring-recognition-in.html
Thanks, very interesting, surferboy.
Since ours aren’t tagged, too bad they don’t have name tags! Lol.
Would be so great if Charlie was back!❤️
Charlie had some splotches on his chest
No audio here either.
I’m not getting audio
I haven’t had audio for past 4 days
We’re trying to figure out what the issue is. Hopefully can get it resolved soon!
Haven’t checked in for a few days, nest is looking really good for eggs!
What I saw yesterday morning was quite an interesting action by Carson. He put his body in the nest center, nestled himself and widened his wings a bit, as to prep the area for eggs. It was a pretty interesting site.
Is audio not working? I don’t have any.
Patchogue nest has two eggs
Wow! do you know when they returned from migrating?
About 20 days ago
I checked back on the posts and first “mating” with “bib” male was 10 days ago, and with Carson, around 7 days ago, so I guess Rachel has approx 10-13 days to go🤷♀️?
I’m not convinced there was any copulation in the attempts by the freckled male.
me either. btw i know osprey mate for life, but any idea how they recognize their mate when they return in the spring? sight, smell ???
My guess would be the sound of their calls as penguins do in colonies of thousands.
Check this out……
https://thewildlifewriter.blogspot.com/2016/09/parent-offspring-recognition-in.html
thanx very interesting👍
I believe I saw 3 eggs this morning
Have really enjoyed watching these beautiful birds since last season. Missing audio for the past couple days. We are spoiled having the sounds of nature along with the video. Hope it can be fixed.
Mating 6:35
This is a first for me – mating at 7:38am while Rachel was eating her breakfast!
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.