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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 birdโs eye view of a beloved birdโs 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 โnest cam,โ 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.
Check out the Osprey in Oxford MA. I saw one eggโฆthought Rachel looked cold
Wow! I guess Worcester area got some snow!
Yes my parents live in Sutton, got 5-6 inches & my brother lives in Hubbardson got 8โฆHappy Spring!
Has anyone else noticed that Rachel has been standing over the egg since about 11:55? I saw Glenn’s post about short periods of time are ok, but this seems extraordinarily long for her to be off it. I hope it isn’t natures way of telling us it isn’t viable.
She seems to be doing delayed incubation. The egg will be fine and by delaying the incubation the eggs will hatch closer together. I’ve seen other females do this and sometimes the first 2 eggs hatch on the same day as a result.
Happy to see the first egg! Iโve missed checking in the past couple days. So exciting!!!!!
GlennโฆI noticed Rachel got off the egg (Carson wasnโt on the nest) to go stretch her wings and returned within a couple minutes to resume her incubating duties. After a while when Carson returned, she stood up standing over the egg and has been very vocal. Can the egg get too warm and she senses the need to let it cool down or is she feeling motion in the egg getting ready to hatch?
It’s way too soon for the egg to hatch or show any signs of motion. They need to incubate between 5-6 weeks. Rachel will take breaks from sitting on the eggs periodically. There’s really no risk of the eggs getting too cold for short periods of time, nor getting too warm either, especially in the current weather conditions.So no cause for concern and hopefully we’ll see a second egg in the next day or so!
Thanks for the info. What would we do without your knowledge.
Return of the Osprey is a great read!
Watching this is such a joy. Hoping we’ll see the next egg today?
Ditto! They have been mating a lot over the past few days๐ค
Carson checking out his first born this season
I see a lot of mating going on but no breakfast ? Whatโs up with that
Right – I have not seen Rachel eating or Carson bringing back any snacks – another ๐ค hmmmm! Rachel has left nest a few times but it did not seem like it was enough time to eat a fish.
I am not an ornithologist but another Safari query said that โFemale ospreys do not eat for a significant period after laying their first egg, especially while incubating.โ
Thanks for the info.
Right. She does call him often (for fish), but I haven’t been lucky enough to see a fish delivery yet.
Carson swoops in at 5:49, mates for 13 seconds and flys off! The amount of mating I have seen leads me to believe thereโs going to be a sizable clutch – ๐ค
A followup to my comment. I just queried Safari and read that female ospreys begin to lay eggs 2-3 days โafter the period of most frequentโ mating. It is usually in the morning for the first egg (albeit this egg was laid at 4pm) and then 1-2 days apart are the following eggs ๐ค. We will see!
It was quite the busy day today at WBNERR Osprey nest! Multiple matings sessions, an interloper with fish in talons really antagonizing Rachel and some real cute additions to the nest brought in by Carson. I sometimes wish I could help them out moving some of those large branches he brings back ๐.
It Feels like being grandparents!!!
Great news on the egg!๐
How exciting to see an egg in the nest!
Will we be assigning names starting with “Lima” this year?
It will be a while before the eggs hatch, but yes: Lima, Mike, November, Oscar…!
They just mated (at 5:42) as Rachel was incubating the egg!
Yeah!! go mama ๐ฅฐ๐๐
๏ปฟ
Momma has an egg
The egg is hard to see if it’s not in the right light.
1ST EGG LAID!!!!!….APRIL 9 AT 17:11:23
I believe we have a egg!
Yes! We do!
Sweeeeeeet!
I believe I just saw a egg get laid
Last night around 9pm Rachel sat in the middle of the nest again for about 20 minutes as though sheโs waiting to lay an egg. She stayed on the perch the rest of the night. Iโm thinking weโve got an egg coming real soon ๐
It looks like Rachel likes her new โdigsโ! About 1/2 hour ago she was sitting in the middle as though sheโs testing the comfort level!
Hi, hereโs a pic of Rachel nest-sitting ๐ so good! Quite the nest too, Carson & Rachel have certainly developed their skills over the yearsโฆ
so sweet !! guess itโs countdown time
They were just mating at 4-8-2025 4:05 pm
Mansfield Mass. Ospreys have returned! Junction of 495 and 140 by the hotel!
Hi Jim, do you have a link to this pair of osprey? Is there a cam? I searched Mansfield MA osprey and the first hits were for Oxford MA.
I looked at video from when one of the osprey arrived this morning around 2:38am and kept an intense look downwards for quite some time – for over an hour. Then around 5:31 the other osprey was screeching around for a couple minutes before landing in the nest. Something was out there but I heard no sounds of an owl. What was odd was that the osprey in the middle of the nest kept opening its mouth but no sound was coming out. I couldnโt distinguish between them because they always had their back to the camera!
Good catch KevinG. I agree that itโs likely been Carson camera perched on watch to ward off the owls. The nest is looking ready so first egg could be along shortly?
Glad to see the “M” which will keep the posters identifiable if not the osprey.
Breaking news 19:48:17 Osprey from nest to camera with dramatic skyline in background.
Missed it. I tried to rewind but only got back to 20:00:00
Merc, for you and others who missed some of the recent action, I’ll try to post some highlights in the next day or so. I was away for a few days, so missed much of this myself!
04/6/25 The owl hasn’t been around at its usual midnight to dawn times that I’ve seen recently but not always watching. Kevin observed a wing come over the picture and thought it might be the owl watching for rodents. I thought it might be the osprey and several mornings there has been an osprey land in the nest on a flight path that appears to be hopping down from the camera. Just before or after daylight. As if on an overnight watch. Today an osprey appeared to fly away from the camera at 19:08:30. Then, at 19:08:51 and until 19:15 or so there was a herd of at least 5 deer roaming under the nest and in the roadway. Different.
We have been watching an Osprey nest on Old Dam Road in Bourne for years. Itโs a beautiful nest in a marsh area. The nest was about two feet high and was blown off its platform during this past winter. It landed in one piece on the ground next to the pole. Both ospreys returned and they spent a few days not doing anything but have started to rebuild the nest. I wonder if they are using the branches and such from the old nest or starting with new materials. Whoever maintains that nest have put new supports up because it had a lean happening and put a second perch on the ground. It has two perches on the platform. Itโs quite a structure in a beautiful setting.
Have there been any further owl sightings or has that totally resolved itself?
For the nights that I have rewound and checked, I have not seen any owls! A great thing. I think Rachel and Carson are definitely settled in cause I have seen many mating sessions – chicks are soon to come ๐
Thanks good news!!
I am impressed with the nest building progress. I keep forgetting that this is not Rachel and Carson’s first rodeo!
Cape Cod Times
https://www.capecodtimes.com/picture-gallery/news/2025/03/31/ospreys-return-cape-cod-ma-nest-behind-dennis-yarmouth-high-school/82730552007/
Wow! that is a Mansion osprey nest! The pics are great snapshots of the hard work they do to get ready for the season! I see a similar grand nest on route 25 west, right over the Bourne Bridge around mile marker 7-ish. Always check it whenever we go off cape but our speed is too fast to get a good glimpse.
That platform looks rough.
๐ I always look for that one on W25 too! Very impressive and has been there many years.
This doesn’t look like Rachel to me? This female looks smaller?
I agree. These are 2 much younger, smaller, and inexperienced nest builders than last years duo.
Nice nest remodel, looks ready to go ๐ฅ
carson brought a fish for rachel but wasn’t letting go ๐
๐๐ตโ๐ซ
Looks like both are working on the nest
Rachel has been doing some good nest defense! Squawking up a storm and literally shoving off an intruding osprey with her beak (around 7:50am). This intruder appeared to be just looking for a place to eat a fish tail!
Must be Love ๐
Eggs will be laid in less than 2 weeks. They need a better bed of moss (or whatever) for the eggs. Right now it looks a little rough ๐ฌ
Together on nest ๐ฅฐ