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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.
Oh my gosh! Smiling ear to ear.
First Chick took flight about 10am
take off at 10:03!!!
yeah!!!!
Great shot!!
at about 10 AM Sat and then there were 2
flying back and forth across the nest at 10:00
Getting ready
Love it! They grow up so fast!
Family of 5 and mom feeds one of the chicks.
Nice to see Carson joining his family
Nice family pic.
I haven’t seen Carson in a while. Is he still bringing fish???
I wonder if the goldish color on one of the chicks is a result of sunburned feathers.
I was just looking at that. Could be a marking for the bird’s sex.
I had commented on that earlier too. I am going to guess it’s a male since there does not appear to be a necklace either – hmmmmm
It is like they all know to give the most ready fledgling enough room to flap their wings. I just love watching them grow.
Wing wash in the rain.
looks like they’re waiting for the next poker hand to be dealt🤭
It does!
😄
ROFLOL!!!
Early feeding ! 5:30 am
Fresh fish. Tail still flapping.
Ready-set-go
The span of one wing is almost as long as nest!
First chick fledge watch 7/14
Won’t be long until one of them takes off. From 7:57 to 7:59 off and on, it was flying from one side of the nest to the other. It’s exciting to see them flying, but sad when they are gone.
last season, the first egg was laid on 4/18 and first fledge on 7/21. this year first egg laid 4/11 so maybe 7/14 for first fledge? maybe even sooner as these guys had an easier time of it re food and weather 🤷♀️🤞
I’m observing one of the 3 chicks appears to have a gold colored swath on the back side of their head/neck area. Hmmmmm would this have anything to do with their gender?????
That is my thought.
Self feeding at 5am today! Lots of flapping and these 3 ospelets get along great!
Wow! I went back and looked at the footage. Such a relief for Rachel now that they are at this phase.
Yes, I agree. They seem to get along much better than last year when Charlie was pecked on a daily basis. Are these three chicks all females and that is why there is no “pecking order”?
Lunch for everyone. The little ones are so big!!
It’s really amazing to see these birds developing so quickly. Soon they will be on their way!
The biggest of the chicks seems to spend a lot of time at the edge of the nest. “ Here I go, Here I go, Here I stay”
That’s a quote from the “Peanut’s comic strip – baseball game”.
Do we know how many chicks are male or female ?
If you go back in messages, Glenn said they don’t get their adult coloring until they are over a year old so there is no way to know at this time.
Thank you, Annie. I completely missed this message from Glenn. He also provided some information below which I appreciated. Watching these chicks for the last couple months has been so enjoyable.
Hi Patty. Juvenile ospreys do not develop their adult plumage until around 18 months. Even then it can be difficult to distinguish between males and females, until they are seen with a mate, where in comparison, the female will be larger and have a more pronounced necklace. Even Juliet could turn out to be male!
Thank you!
Night action
Wingercise!
❤️!
I checked out the camera last night around 9. It ended up lighting up the nest so I got out right away. Is that normal for the camera to light the nest? Can it be shut off? Or does it have a night vision feature and just looks like it’s lit up?
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.
Get message cam permanently closed. What’s up? Haven’t seen the birds for three days now.
Rae, not sure what issue you’re having. That message has never appeared on the site and the camera has been operating without issue. Try closing your browser and clearing your history (cached pages). Can you send a screen shot of what you’re seeing?
19:46-47 July 4th
Pretty neat wing flapping! Trying to figure out how to use them 😀
About 18:11 July 4th
😄 Wing flapping and hopping, so cute imitating mom when she is not around.
Are there 3 female chicks. ? Looks like they all have “necklaces”
Good observation, but it’s too early to determine the sex of the chicks. Juveniles won’t develop their adult plumage until around 18 months. Even Juliet could turn out to be a male!
Happy 4th of July everyone! Hope our ospreys like fireworks!
7:40 and no camera
There’s been some speculation lately about when the chicks will fledge. Last year, the first chick fledged at 56 days old. The year before, it was 58 days. This year the first chick hatched on May 19th, which would bring the expected fledge date to around July 14-16. In the next few days we should start to see a lot of wing flapping, jumping, and brief hovering. Keep a close eye out!
The fledglings will still return to the nest and be provided for by the parents for several more weeks until they learn to catch fish on their own.
Just saw all 5 in the nest – so crowded! I get nervous how close the babies are to the edge. How did they get so big!!!
She just moved and there he is😊
Right now, unless mom is blocking my view, I can only see 2 babies. Did someone fledge?
Still a bit too early for fledge.
A2Z hi .. try clearing the cache, then try to delete. Also, after Posting, below the comment, it appears you can tap on the gear, system icon in the lower right corner, to the right of Reply. Open up the comment box as if you were editing the msg, but instead, backspace to erase what was typed, then save. Or Select what you typed, Highlight, then Cut, then Save. The comment might appear again, as edited by you, only now the box could be blank. I have not tried this, just opened it to check it out, then I Cancelled out of it all.
😀 I like your comments. Please continue to post them.
16:48 On the video box, the screen shows “Powered by: HD on Tap”
Ps. also reads “error occurred”
A2Z, per your request, I deleted all of your comments. I had to do this in small batches due to the large number of posts, which is probably why you weren’t able to do so yourself. If you wish to do this on a regular basis, please try it more frequently so they don’t build up. I’m not sure what your reasons are – your comments have always been valuable, informative and appreciated – but I respect your desire for privacy, if that is the underlying intention.
Thank you Glenn. I’ll be making a donation to Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge.
Regards.
FYI: 14:52 sunday 6/30 .. getting an error message, no picture, appears to be a server error. Refreshing screen did not correct it.
Same here at 15:49pm.
Thanks for letting us know – I have reported it to our hosting provider.
When do you think the chicks might try to fly?
Usually around 7 1/2 – 8 weeks old.
How old are they today
The oldest is 6 weeks old today