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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.
huh- looks like we lost the camera as well as the sound. message says live stream is currently off-line
never mind- sound and pic working
I restarted the system which disabled the video for a few minutes. Both audio and video are now working – phew!
He arrived with something better to eat. She accepted it and flew off with it. Mr is sitting on the eggs now
Finally he arrives with a bit of breakfast. She gives him the “look”. Is that all you got. So he leaves and takes it with him.
At 8:12 Carson brought back a nice fish tail and Rachel wasn’t the least bit interested at all – hmmmm. He flew off with it at 8:18. He came back at 8:31 with same fish tail and flew off seconds later with it!
He brought another offer of breakfast but he flew off again with it. She must be a picky eater
No audio. Monday April 14 23:30
Is anyone else having trouble with the audio?
Yes. It’s been out for a while now – maybe 4 hours.
Yes, I have no audio either
Good pic of the two eggs
There is no audio.
the family
❤️
and the countdown for #3 is on. Hope it’s today since the weather is so nice 🙏🤞
They normally lay an egg every three days, so the third would be expected late tomorrow, 4/15.
During the day, the eggs are well-camauflaged, but at night they seem to glow in the images recorded by the infra-red camera. Here, Rachel takes a short break from her nightime sleep and we can get a clear view of the two eggs. Will we see another in the next day or two? (Reminder, there is no light shining on the nest, only infrared light which is invisible to both birds and humans, but can be captured by the camera.)
Gee they almost look like alien eggs – just kidding but they have this glow about them 😂
Gee – at 5:37 I thought Carson was going to bring in something for Rachel to eat but instead it was a quick mating and he was gone! Rachel stretched her wings and back to her being such a diligent mom!
Carson did come back at 5:43 for a quick minute and then flew off. I’m hoping he’s getting a bite to eat for Rachel. She must be getting “peckish”!
rachel you are such a good mama caring for your eggs in this crappy weather without a break. but have you eaten lately? i’ve heard an osprey in the background but haven’t seen carson.
At 8:32 Carson came in with a fish tail and wow did Rachel go after it. She took it and flew off – a well deserved break – and Carson took over incubation. She came back at 8:43 and resumed her incubation 🙂
thanx for letting me know. i hadn’t seen him and am glad he brought her a fish and gave her a break
She laid the 2nd egg, 4/12… @ 18:44:43
Fantastic! Congratulations to Rachel. Unfortunately I can’t rewind back to that time. I feel so bad that the weather is so windy and raw outside. It was 3 days ago when Rachel laid her first egg.
Hi Merc. I posted it to the highlights. Looks like we’ll be getting more of the same conditions today. Rachel is doing a great job of perservering in this weather and doing exactly what she needs to do!
Thank you!
Thanks Carol! I was watching most of the day hoping to see it happen live, but missed in the evening. Great catch – it was hard to notice with the rain on the lens. It’s posted on the highlights.
You’re welcome, Glenn. I have learned how to spot the time when an egg is coming by the female’s behavior. It was a bit hard to see through the raindrops, though, as you said.
Is that a second egg at 6:47?
Followers use facebook
Buried in snow, protecting egg
Check out the Osprey in Oxford MA. I saw one egg…thought 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 8…Happy 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! I’ve missed checking in the past couple days. So exciting!!!!!
Glenn…I noticed Rachel got off the egg (Carson wasn’t 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 days🤞
Carson checking out his first born this season
I see a lot of mating going on but no breakfast ? What’s up with that
Right – I have not seen Rachel eating or Carson bringing back any snacks – another 🤔 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 “Female ospreys do not eat for a significant period after laying their first egg, especially while incubating.”
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 there’s going to be a sizable clutch – 🤔
A followup to my comment. I just queried Safari and read that female ospreys begin to lay eggs 2-3 days “after the period of most frequent” 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 🤔. 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 😊.
It Feels like being grandparents!!!
Great news on the egg!😊
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 🥰👏🙏
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 she’s waiting to lay an egg. She stayed on the perch the rest of the night. I’m thinking we’ve got an egg coming real soon 🙂
It looks like Rachel likes her new “digs”! About 1/2 hour ago she was sitting in the middle as though she’s testing the comfort level!
Hi, here’s a pic of Rachel nest-sitting 😊 so good! Quite the nest too, Carson & Rachel have certainly developed their skills over the years…
so sweet !! guess it’s countdown time
They were just mating at 4-8-2025 4:05 pm