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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.
Maybe this fall we should take a look at this nest to see what is actually structurally wrong with it and see if we can’t help avoid this scenario again. Kevin and I will talk to Glenn about that idea. The platform is solid but maybe we can add an additional piece to it.
Is anyone not seeing video?
7:03pm I have video
Sorry – it was me. Needed to clear my history.
I saw the mating. 15:42
lets hope the nest can be repaired before any eggs are laid.
Wow Really, amazing how instinctively they go forward to continue to preserve their species…incredible determination
What a beautiful photo!!
My husband took pic, a nesting pair for several yrs, located Squeteaque Harbor along side Megansett Rd – Garnet Ave on the town line Cataumet & North Falmouth. Beautiful spot! Great walking trails too…Baxendale Woods Conservation Area (BCT Trails)
Wow! That is amazingly gorgeous!
If you live near by you should check it out. You can park at the trails or along Amrita Island bridge & walk up road to view. Probably the closest you’ll ever get to see an Osprey nest. The dead tree in pic is on road & the male hangs out there…they fish right there too…so very cool!
Thanks! Yes i am nearby and look forward to seeing this IRL. 🙂
♥️ ❤️
This so encouraging
I wonder with all this rain if the middle of the nest collapsed and the babies are there?
If they did fall thru and we are able to find at least one of the chicks, would we be able to do an autopsy to see if it was poisoning?
I’m sure you’re the only one that thinks that’s funny Dick, I mean Merc
Bird flu. Would be good to know.
😊
I’ve been following several osprey and bald eagle nest cams this season. There were several disasters across the country. I’m very saddened by Rachel and Carson’s loss. Last season I mentioned the bald eagle nest at Big Bear Lake. The two young eagles are close to fledging.
Watching them might help to lift spirits a bit.
Thank you for reminder! I have been watching that nest since they were being incubated! Yes – it can be a little calming to watch our national birds at Big Bear Lake. It’s amazing how Jackie and Shadow have endured during snow storms protecting their chicks – Sunny and Gizmo. ♥️
I have been seeing a bird in my neighborhood over the past month or so. I’m not sure if it is a white heron or an egret. It’s beautiful and always alone. Today I saw it with three young ones. ❤️🩹 Just what my heart needed today. New life.
I can hear chirping and now I see a hole in the nest
Mating at 15:42
Oh boy, the osprey expert Glenn spoke to said it’s too late in the season to start over.
I googled second clutch after first dies, and it’s possible if it’s early enough in season. not sure if it’s still early enough
Sweeeeeeeeeet! There is still hope! 🤞
SAD day!!! Hopefully Brewster nest does better! Cape Cod Museum🤞🤞🤞 of Natural History
I’m watching that cam now too… 2 of 3 eggs hatched as of today.
although very tragic I’m glad to see both Rachel & Carson together at nest
I think I hear chirping and she keeps looking down!
Where are the babies ?????
Has something tragic happened? I see an empty nest this morning; no adults or chicks. 😢
I have been watching this site since the beginning and have really enjoyed it. I am so sad that it has ended this way. Maybe there was something wrong with the chicks and it’s nature’s way of taking care of it. Hoping next year will go better. Thanks Glen for your monitoring of the site and your input. I appreciate the work you do for it. I’ve learned a lot about osprey.
Does anyone know why the nest looks empty this morning, with no sign of the chicks, or Rachael and Carson?
The chicks are gone…..😢
At 1:06 am the nest is empty and you can hear something, an animal
Hi Amy, see posts below for details…very sad
I was just checking in to see them too. I’ve read all the way down in the posts to learn what might have happened. This is so so sad. 😥
Is there anyone at the Reserve that could check underneath the nest on the off chance that a chick could have survived the fall? This is such a devastating development!!!
9:54 am there are 4 people on the path opposite the nest. Hoping they are aware of this situation and will report back
This is so sad. We’ve been fortunate to witness 3 consecutive years of 2-3 chicks fledging each season, and it’s incredibly heartbreaking to see this year end so suddenly with a different outcome. It’s hard to see what happened. Once the chicks stop moving, it’s nearly impossible to discern them from the nest material. I don’t think they fell through a hole in the nest as some have suggested; more likely they just quickly expired and we no longer can see them. The nest was deep enough and the platform was extremely strong, so I don’t think that was a contributing factor.
At 9 days old, I thought the chicks appeared smaller than previous years. They seemed to be regularly fed, so it’s possible it was disease or some other natural factor that contributed to their deaths. I know we’d like to have a definitive answer, but all we can do is speculate about what led to this sad result.
I reached out to an osprey expert who said it would be too late in the season to try again, but the adults will still maintain and guard the nest for the remainder of the season. For whatever small consolation it is, we can still observe Rachel and Carson this year and hope next year will have the outcome that we all expect and hope for.
I appreciate you all for your ongoing observations, thoughts and comments. We all grieve in experiencing this and can support one another – thank you for that.
Thank you, Glenn. 🙁
Hi Glenn I viewed video last night and actually saw one chick disappear into next at 05-29-2025 19:10:30 see pic
Thanks Dena. I watched that also, but I thought even before it disappeared into the nest, it seemed weak and listless. Probably sick.
Yes, I agree, about 15 minutes give or take the chick was chirping continuously & after several attempts to sit while chick was chirping Rachel stood up & all I could see was chick disappearing into nest. That’s when she stretched out her wings and look down to where the chick was & was gone.I knew then there was nothing Rachel could do or anyone. I think it was last yrs chick did the exact same thing & I went immediately to reserve to look, no results just wishful hopes
Could it have been bird flu?
Just checked after a couple of days for my osprey fix and oh no…….how very very sad. Thanks Glenn and everyone else for all for the observations on this. Bless you Dena for going over to look under the nest.
Thank you, Glenn for all this information.
oh no 😥. when Rachel only laid 3 eggs, I was so hopeful that the full clutch would survive. these deaths have been beyond bizarre and heartbreaking
Could the Great Horned Owl got the chicks?
Hi,
I am concerned this morning – I do not see the chicks nor Rachel and Carson coming to the nest.
What may have happened.
Concerned viewer!
Bob Johnson
Such sad news. I wonder if Rachel & Carson will stay in the area or leave. The summer won’t be the same without watching this family grow.
😢😥😓🫢😰. I can’t believe it. I feel so bad.
Is it possible they will try again and is there still time to do so? I know that the piping plovers last year on Sandy Neck had a storm wipe out their nests and they again started over. No idea on this but am hopeful.
Maybe the other possibility is that there were other critters sharing the nest beneath that created the void?
Good thought especially if they were pulling nesting material from below to make their own nest. Either way it’s tragic to think of them falling out.
Immediately Rachel knows something is terribly wrong
So saddening that this happened. Wondering if the base of the platform from moisture became degraded to the point that the nest materials lost support and slowly caved in? The chicks seemed to slowly settle lower into the void. I remember that the nest platform was replaced previously so perhaps it just didn’t hold up?
I just looked back at recording, see posted time on pic
It appears chick fell through nest at this time 😢
I can’t see any chicks.
Checking in on the chicks and didn’t see any. Saw everyone’s comments. Watching replay of earlier footage around 19:11 and only saw one chick. It appears that maybe the two remaining live chicks possibly fell through the soft material through the bottom of the nest. It looked like they were quite low to begin with. So sad 😞 Nature can be difficult sometimes to watch. Rachel appeared to be looking for them. Summer won’t be the same this year 🙁
I don’t understand what happened. I always check in before I go to bed. I was never expecting this. My heart is heavy.
After reading Antone’s comment I went back to 19:10 and watched with magnifying glass, it looks like there was a hole! And baby just slipped through whilst Mom helplessly watched. How awful!!
I watched too & posted pics with time & messaged Glenn…I can’t believe what I saw…the next that keeps them safe failed…
What is that
Incredibly sad!!! I can hear an Osprey sitting on camera out of view 😢 a few chirps…any idea what happened & when? I just read through comments. I’m heartbroken as all of you are
I use to do bird rehab, feeding chicks with eye dropper and then you go to do a regular feeding and they’re suddenly dead. And that’s indoors in a controlled environment. It’s obviously massively more difficult for chicks when they’re out in the wild elements. So sad to see Mama fixated on green stick, moving it around nest for 11 minutes. I shall miss my daily watch of chicks growing up 😢!!!
Don’t see the chicks and she’s rearranging the nest.
I watched the tape. At 5:05pm one chick there and wiggling. She sits down Then by 5:10 she gets up and no movement. She flies away for a minute. Then back and dropping sticks on top of the lifeless chick. She is distraught. Moving sticks around. So sad. Will they mate again???? 😢
Nest was empty. She came back but I don’t see the chicks
At 19:09:56 the remaining chick went through a hole in the nest. You can see and hear him drop & apparently the crows are aware as well. So sad.
I am not seeing any chicks either☹️
Both chicks gone! See reply below to Kathy’s post
I was scrolling through today’s tape and it appears that at the 4 pm feeding today (5/29) it looks like there is only one chick (and the chick looks like is stuck in the nest, i.e. not able to move around much). Two chicks visible at the 10 am feeding. At the noon feeding today it looks like only one chick eating but difficult to see clearly.
I just looked back in time and at 19:06 the chick was there, but a few minutes later at 19:10 Rachel got up and started looking and there was no chick!
at 19:09:40 looks like baby chick is slipping thru the base of the nest…………….At 19:10:29 looks like adult bird got up pushed chick thru base of nest