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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.
Thanks to all of you who support the Friends of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge! If you’re not a current member, please join our group and show your support for the osprey cam and much more!
https://www.friendsofmashpeenationalwildliferefuge.org/home/friends/support-us/
I believe this is the exact time chick falls through nest
Watched prior for about 10 minutes & chick visibly struggling & chirping
Absolutely devastating
7:55am 5/28 – Fish delivery!
One chick beating down sibling pretty bad around 8:01. Not fun to watch, but understand ospreys have survived for thousands of years and this behavior has always existed.
That was ‘sqwacking’ for Carson … All good now as the little one righted itself with great effort at 16:37
That was too funny. The same thing happened the other day. Probably the same chick was on its back and its feet were kicking in the air. I can say now that it was funny – cause everything turned out ok!
Distress 4:30 pm: Youngest Chick is tipped over on its back … Rachel doesn’t seem to know what to do; keeps stacking for Carson.
Watching the chicks getting their nice fish lunch is such a joy. 😊
the babies are alone! 3:21 pm may 27.
Has anyone seen any activity in the sparrow nest since the storm? I haven’t been able to catch any.
Cute feeding at 8:14 am 5/27
I’m a little late but at 9am Carson brought back another nice sized fish. The waterways are surely stocked cause he has been getting some nice dinners. Such a fantastic angler!!!
🙂 so glad the chicks are great !!
Both chick alone in the nest @8:26:25. Mom returned at 8:42.
Is there an audio issue or is it on my end?
there’s been an audio problem
Thank you.
During the 7:30 feeding one of the chicks somehow rolled onto its back and feel kicking upwards. Shortly after Rachel didn’t seem to upright the chick and sat on them. I sure hope everything turns out ok. Carol if I knew how, I would have posted a short YouTube clip!
All is well, both chicks eating 7:55
Oh no. One of the chicks fell backwards while feedig and cant get up.
And now just got sat on! 7:35 pm
Just saw chicks, I’m 5 days behind.
Great clip of the fish battle. Thank you for posting
Can the sound be restored?
Carson brought a huge fish to the nest and some others in the neighborhood noticed. https://youtu.be/CR49r4wPTJY
Wow thats a mega fish!
Thanks Carol. That was a huge fish! I posted that to the highlights as well.
shortly after that fish arrived one of the neighbors returned and stole that fish after a skirmish. You gotta eat fast.
That was a great video you captured!
Capturing such a large fish reminded me of a story I once heard (don’t really know if it’s true) about osprey that were discovered to have drowned when sinking their talons into large fish and not being able to remove it before being drawn to deep waters.
No sound at 1:45
An interloper showed up while the chicks were exposed when they were feeding. Lots of flapping to chase him off
Interesting interloper. He didn’t taunt Rachel or chicks but landed on corner of nest and was looking down towards the ground. At first I thought it was Carson until Rachel started flapping her wings. Carson flys in and then chases him!
Feeding 2 chicks at 5:52 am 5/24.
No audio here either
5/24 01:18 a squirrel runs around the sleeping osprey. Not a stir. 04:27 home alone.
LOL! Rachel didn’t even flinch when that squirrel ran around.
Great catch!!! It looked like a chipmunk to me?
The new nest held up well during and after the storm.
A perch in the top right corner might add to the viewing.
I don’t seem to have audio. Is anyone else having the same problem?
No audio for me either
Ditto. No volume.
odd?? rachel was eating a fish, definitely 2 heads looked like they wanted to be fed, seemed to be the third baby in the nest, but no movement. instead of feeding the chicks, rachel finished eating and then sat on them.
Unfortunately, one of the chicks didn’t survive the storm. It never moved during the feeding at 7:25. I would guess it was probably the youngest. Sad to have that storm so soon after it hatched.
Oh no. That’s so sad. Everyone was so excited about watching these 3 over the next few months. At least 2 survived and hopefully no more storms for a while.
😥
I watched that feeding too. Sad.
Did you see Carson take the little one off nest?
when I first took pic of feeding I thought I saw movement, then nothing…hoping for better outcome 😢 Thankful for remaining chicks, Rachel certainly did an outstanding job throughout the storm
Carol, during the 06:24:17 feeding there were 3 chicks being fed. I noticed that a piece of fish put into one of the chicks mouths was not released properly and the chick got lifted about 3” and then it dropped. Not sure if that could have done harm since they are way too young. 🤔😞😢.
I was surprised to see that 2 hatched at once then a couple days after the third one hatched. It was interesting that the eggs were each laid approx 3 days apart yet hatched in a different pattern/order.
When the eggs hatch together like that it is because the female delays incubation of the first egg until after the 2nd one is laid. I have seen this on other nests, also.
Thank you for info! Very interesting.
You’re welcome. There is so much to learn about these fascinating birds.
You are right about the one chick being lifted during the feeding. It looked pretty rough and might have been what caused the death. So many things can happen at a nest. Sad.
7:30 ish…All 3 chicks eager to eat, Rachel takes flight while Carson cares for chicks…
The youngest chick did not make it
5/23/25 02:53 A middle of the night feeding in the rain.
has she been able to feed the babies since the downpours began?
I wish this weather would stop. It’s every time the babies hatch we get bad weather.
I believe that is the remains of a fish brought in around 17:02 May 22
What is that in the nest next to Mom?
😆 had to put on the glasses. Do you mean that thing that looks like it is hanging on?? With stripes. A fish maybe? Weird looking stick.
Cant see it now. …
Oh poor Mama, What a good job she is doing, protecting her babies.
Morning feeding
3 lil bobbleheads! Will be a fun nest to watch nature!
Such a great feeding family view now 5:50 pm.
Carson feeding Rachel is so sweet.
So very sweet! Thanks for the picture Merc
awwwww 🥰
3:35pm Just saw the three little ones!
OMG! I just saw 3 little ones too at 3:55! WOW! Woo Hoo.
I see 3 mouths. All hatched fairly close to one another. Maybe, then, they’ll get more equal treatment by the others than observed in the past.
I sure hope so! Sometimes it’s just hard to watch.