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Welcome to “Season Four” of our osprey cam! Carson arrived on March 20th, 2025. 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 2025 (“Season Four”)
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.
breakfast with the entire family
Love the family pic!
Very nice family portrait!
Hotel enjoys breakfast on nest…who’s next to take fight???
assume it will be india, and possibly today. the triplets are doing a lot of flapping and hotel just took off, circled and landed back as if showing the others how to do it.
Rachel (or Carson) brought a fish at 5:37am. Hotel immediately grabbed it and would not share. His siblings did not even try. The pecking order is clearly established in that nest.
posting at 8:00pm. glad that hotel made it back but now there are 3 on the nest and thinking one is Rachel. did hotel take off again?
Hotel has some work to do with his landings, especially if there’s others in the nest.
If anyone missed the return of Hotel, I posted it to the highlights. It was not the most graceful landing!
Wow! Thanks for posting
Brought back memories of a friend who was a Navy pilot describing his training to land on a carrier – takes some practice!
Thank you for posting the landing as a highlight. That was so funny.
Thank you Glenn. That was priceless 😄
Yay! All back home 5:10 pm. Dad brought fish! Very vocal crew!
🤗
Hotel returns!
Around 4:00 I saw an osprey up on the roof nest. I think it might be hotel. Around 3:30, an osprey attempted to enter the live camera nest, but Rachel fought them off. I’m hoping that it wasn’t Hotel trying to enter the nest but a different bird, couldn’t tell though.
What time was that? Any further possible sightings?
Hotel is flying around and so is mom and dad. I’ve seen him twice go to land in the other nest (has his feet out) and then changes his mind. He can definitely see and hear his siblings so surprised he hasn’t gone back.
sure hoping that this is hotel and carson flying above🙏
If any local viewers are able to check on Hotel, please report on what activity you see in the chimney nest or other nearby spots where he/she may be perched. New fledglings are still dependent on the adults for food, so it is likely that Rachel or Carson would be delivering meals to Hotel. I guess you could call it room service.
6:15 – only 2 in the nest! Check 4:30am for takeoff and 5:28am for the return.
Hotel left, what happens now, is he ok?
Where is the rewind???
Yes. Where is the rewind?
Found it. At the bottom of the screen. (The red line I believe.)
Tap on the Red bar under the video to go back in time. You can check the time stamp after you tap to see what time it is.
Yes, it was wonderful to be able to go back to watch the take off!
I also used the rewind feature- didn’t want to miss the excitement. Great day!!! Is it unusual for such a long period before returning to the nest?
Glen, love the 12-hour rewind upgrade! I went back to 10:03 and saw first chick fledge! Love it!
Hotel has found their way onto the abandoned visitor center chimney nest!
Emily, thanks for sharing that! I didn’t realize the chimney nest was abandoned? Did that pair never return this year, or just fail to breed and left? But glad to see Hotel has a safe place to roost nearby.
Hi Glenn, we figured out that the nest failed last week since we hadn’t seen the adults or the chick for a few days. Hotel’s landing is the first activity I’ve seen up there since last Thursday.
It looks like the male is still around though- after I sent in the picture, I saw that someone was sitting on the lightning rod and chased hotel off. I’m still keeping an eye out for Hotel, at least whenever there’s a break in the rain.
I was watching earlier this morning say to myself fledging will come shortly due to the length of time the She/He was flyimg side to side in the nest and then hovering!
Hear I am checking the progress and it happened 🦅.
I’m assuming it was Hotel, at 55 days old. He/she missed a meal, but there’s a whole new world to explore!
Simply amazing! Time to go fishing
Now we’re all awaiting his/her safe return…was this Hotel? Missing late breakfast.
🤗
Lift-off!!!
10:03:11
First ospelet to fledge!
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!