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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.
I just learned from the bird report this morning on WCAI that this is the great horned owl mating season. I’m thinking this visiting owl could be the male trying to impress wherever the female is nesting with his “catches of the day”!
Thanks for the info, Merc. And maybe that’s why it hoots so much
That is so interesting! Thanks.
owl in the snow 05:26 to 05:34 with a good sized meal it didn’t eat.
I saw that too. This looked like something bigger than a rodent. I was unable to get a slow/paused look cause my device kept freezing.
Looks like a rabbit.
owl loves the attention. back early friday evening 2/7. there from 19:15 to 20:10, eating something at 20:08
Thanks to everyone for tracking the activity of Mr. Owl (or is it Mrs?)! Here’s a shot from this morning of the owl with its prey.A chipmonk maybe? What do you think?
Great shot…thanks Glen! Definitely is some kind of rodent
My guess would be a mouse or a small rat
Lois – I thought the same thing – a small rodent (mouse or rat)!
Glen – you are right – I just typed “Mr”! I am going to have to google how to differentiate between male and female owls 🙂
I checked in 2/7/25 at 5:00am and Mr. Owl was there again. He arrived at 03:56:30am. I have been catching up on previous comments and find it very interesting that this owl is becoming a regular visitor. He left at 5:07:20
I can’t wait for Rachel and Carson next month! I have been caught up watching “Kassie and Wilko” hatch and fledge at the Port Lincoln Osprey nest in Australia.
5:01 and he’s back
quick owl 2/5/25 04:52 – 04″58
owl made a few visits 2/3/25 20:10 – 20:18, 20:55 – 21:38 , and then 2/4/25 03:44 – past 05:30, this time eating something around 5:26. True Bird & Breakfast.in the Air
Hawk sitting there for long time this morning, I noticed at least for an hour! Perhaps all are using as a winter Air B&B as the spring/summer residents are out of town….lol
Great catch Tania! I hope these temporary tenants leave before the ospreys return in another 6 weeks or so. I added a short video clip to the highlights, where you can get a good view of the red tail.
Owl was back at 04:26, eating something at 04:48 and 05:18 and good view of remains at 05:44. Still there at 05:47
Owl was on nest at 20:52
Owl spent three long stretches in nest between 18:02 and 23:17, just hanging out.
Owl back again this morning
arrived 1/29/25 at 02:24 with something to eat. left at 4:08
Did it ever eat what it caught?
It arrived with something in its beak and eventually dropped it into the nest and appeared to be eating for a bit but most of the time its back was to the camera so couldn’t see. Just before it left it was using beak to dig around nest and it did not leave with what it brought so it either finished it or buried it.
Thanks for the info
Owl just left nest 5:15
owl was back and forth (not sure where forth is) with nest time from 01:05-01:38, 04:56-05:14and 05:25-06:07. just hanging out, lots of whooo-ing
Yes! I took the screen shot but was unable to send it
Looking forward to seeing new life!
Do you think the Osprey will be affected by the bird flu? Have any of the birds in Plymouth been identified?
The owl is back! From at least 9:45 -10PM. Eating remains in the nest and “playing with stick”
This arrival was at :21:11:14 and just at that moment the markings (head/eyes) looked like tonight’s dinner possibly was a small owl. After that hard to distinguish.
Here’s a screenshot of that arrival moment. You might be right, but it’s really hard to tell for sure.
thanks for the screen shot, right at arrival time.What I saw must have been a few seconds after, before the big owl went into the nest. the video had recycled when I looked again. it doesn’t matter, except of course to the owl. thanks again.
Owl eatting bird at nest 4:46 am Jan 2
arrived 04:16:17 ate and then departed with half at 05:08:11
Returned 05:28:52 ate then departed with leftovers 05:44:44
I posted a short clip of it eating the bird. I can’t tell what type of bird it was, but it sure was big! According to Mass Audubon, they eat “some birds (especially in north), up to size of geese, ducks, hawks, and smaller owls.”
owl was back Tuesday 12-31-2024 03-10-52 to 03-12-56 mostly looking away from camera
a squirrel was there at 0-4-33. probably lucky it missed the owl
Thanks for the owl update👍
Great shot of the owl…it looks huge!
This is exciting because we hear them often but have never seen one.
12-28-2024 Saturday an owl in the nest,apparently with takeout 0515 through 05:28
Thanks Kevin! Looks like it brought its breakfast, though I’m not sure what animal it was. Here’s a screenshot.
Coldest morning of the season so far – not even the squirrels are leaving footprints in the snow. Welcome to Winter!
A visit by a pair of squirrels on 12/15,from 8:18 (chewing sticks out of view) for several minutes. Even when you couldn’t see them, you could hear them moving around.
It was interesting to watch how they were pushing sticks up from below, like they were burrowing under the nest. I’ll post it to the highlights later today. Thanks!
I could see the stick moving and hear noises, but there was no wind in the tree, no wind moving the shadows – looked like it was haunted. I watched for a long time before the squirrels appeared.
I just posted a short segment, but it was fun to watch the entire event. Haunted, yes!
No idea what this means, but cam not loading and has this message:
HLS.js error: networkError – fatal: true – manifestLoadError
Hi Annie. It looks fine at my end. Try refreshing page or slosing browser and trying again.
it’s working ok now. Thanks for checking.
between 12:40 and 12:54 on 12-04-24 a winged visitor to this nest
Great catch! Some type of hawk. Maybe a coopers hawk or a juvenile red-tailed hawl. Any hawk experts out there?
thanks for adding the hawk highlight
the highlighted hawk was back again 12-07, 10:28 thru 10:50
Here’s a pic of the hawk arriving. Thanks Kevin for keeping a close watch!
Dec 02/24: 2 adult osprey in a tree over the water Eel River East. Seems very unusual innDecember. Usually first spot them around March 17-28.
I use it as a weather cam when I’m out of town!
Every day😊
It’s wonderful to see so many people are still following the nest in the off-season! May we all benefit from the peace and tranquility of an empty nest in these turbulent times.
some times I turn the sound down a bit and leave it on as background while doing other things on the computer. It’s kind of like being outdoors.
I like looking at it year around also.
Yeah! It’s back. I love checking in a couple of times a day year round. It’s interesting to notice background critter noises, how the nest changes, changes to the trees and the occasional visitor.
Thanks for getting it back, Glen!
Cam says “Error Occured” Is it down for the winter?
It seems like the URL was changed by our streaming provider. I’ve contacted them, but probably won’t hear back until Monday. Thanks for letting me know and we’ll get this resolved as soon as we can.
It’s working now. Sorry for the lapse!
For those who will take any action – 10-23-2024 23:20 a small squirrel or a large chipmunk for a few seconds.
We have an osprey sitting on a telephone pole for the last 5 hours, he or she brought a fish and ate that over about 2 hours. Could it be scoping it out for a nest in the future?
Probably just taking a meal break, either getting ready to migrate or a rest stop from some point to the North.
At 6:59am another visitor – this time a squirrel – visits the nest! This nest is becoming popular. Raccoons, hawks, squirrels and of course our residents – Rachel, Carson and family.
I forgot Owls, too.
That osprey, ?Juliet, flew in with the fish at 6:28. Could she finally be fending for herself? YAY!!!
6:35am Osprey on nest eating a fish
Hard to check in to an empty nest 😕
You never know what will show up. Tonight you can hear the peepers so loud.
Looks like a Cooper’s hawk.