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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.
if she was to lay more eggs when would that begin?
I believe that would have began last week. Successful mating will produce eggs typically in 10-12 days.
Getting the same error 5:34pm Thu June 19th
no picture with this message: HLS.js error: networkError – fatal: true – manifestParsingError
same here
Thanks for reporting – we’re looking into it.
Rachel asleep on perch. 10PM 6/18
one of the birds arrived on the nest with leaves and a stick at 12:14 today 6/17
That’s always a good sign but I’m wondering if it is too late in season for eggs??? There has been mating but not sure if it will materialize into chicks!
Captured Rachel having dinner on her perch. Just now.
from 9:55 to10:45 Carson on nest; Rachel arrives and mating occurs 16:30. Both stay and Carson rearranges nest. 16:34 Rachel leaves. 16:43 both on nest. Rachel leaves then Carson
Nope, someone there at 2:20 am.
Have they abandoned the nest for good?
They are hanging around, but it doesn’t look like they are doing any upkeep.
More mating at 7:58:20 this morning!
I check every day, several times a day for an egg.😥 time marches on
Well said Mr.Govoni! Our children and grandchildren must be educated!
For those of you that want to watch another local nest here is the link:
Osprey Cam | Cape Cod Museum of Natural History
Thank you for the link!!
Hi Bob, do you know if there are still 3 chick’s at this nest? I saw one being intimidated at a feeding by an older sibling. Since then I have been able to make out only 2.
Glen
I would like to thank you, the Falmouth Osprey Project and Moriarty Tree Service for our live Osprey Cam -Video , education and maintenance off the Osprey Nest at Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve..
Unfortunately this year the chicks did not survive. Myself I had concern of their survival due to the extreme amount of wet and windy days we had this Spring while the eggs were being incubated. It only got worse as a chicks were trying to put on body weight after being hatched and the rain continued. They could not survive these conditions which is expected. I applaud everyone involved for determining that they did not fall to a hole in the nest. The facts are always important.! This is a reality lesson for all of us about nature. The phrase “ survival of the fittest” coined by Herbert Spencer is a phrase from Darwinian evolutionary theory as describing the mechanism of natural selection. Survival of the fittest does not mean the strongest individual survive, it means that in a population, the properties that best fit in a specific environment of that population tend to survive, and this explains how species adapt to their environment. It has nothing to do with physical strength, although in some cases, physical strength can be a fitting property. Weather patterns for the past 15 to 20 years in New England and our country have been changing.
Instead of everyone being silent who like myself enjoy having this osprey camp provided to us it’s time that we all have an adult discussion ( educational) on this year’s nesting instead of being silent. I myself watches with my granddaughter and had to explain to her why the chicks never grew up.🌱
Best Regards
Jim Govoni
No more video?
Mating at 4:58:08 this morning! Still hopeful 🙂
Can anyone post a picture of the hole in the nest so I can show someone
.
what is going on the the camera right now??
So seems like Rachel may lay more eggs due to all the mating. Does anyone know if that will be enough time for the ospelets to develop and be able to fly south when the time comes?
so, from what I’ve read, the babies would need around 100 days from being laid to being able to migrate. that would put us at mid sept . osprey tend to migrate based on daylight hours and difficulty getting food as the fish swim deeper when the ocean temps start dropping. the wild card is that the ocean temps are rising so if fish remain abundant enough – it’s doable but tight. mom and dad seem determined to make more babies so my 🙏🤞hope is that all goes well
Kevin Friel, expert on all things osprey, says a successful second clutch is unlikely. Sadly.
I have been away for a bit and came back to see no chicks! How devastating.:-(
Thanks to the gentleman who did the work on the nest, and to you, Glen, for posting the videos.
Excellent – more mating at 4:53am. Last night I did not see Rachel sitting/sleeping on perch but believed that one of them was on top of camera for the night.
Thank you to the gentleman that fortified the nest around 7:43 this morning.
👏👍 he did a very thorough job. I think Rachel is pleased
Any video of the repairs
Yes, see the highlights page.
There is nothing on the highlights page about the rebuilding at 7:43 today 6/4
What was the title of the highlight
Sorry, forgot to update the page. Should be there now.
8:47 Carson and Rachel back on the nest, and mating!
Excellent. There have been a couple other matings so hopefully, as mentioned earlier, no more than about 10 days for Rachel to lay an egg.
Sometime today, the nest is going to be inspected, and if any gaps or holes are found, it will be patched. This may help in determining what happened to the last two nestlings
thanx glenn. we are all heartbroken over the loss of the chicks and watching rachel is so sad
At 6:45 am Mrs is on the nest for a bit. Mr shows up with a fish. She quickly takes it away from him and flys off. It seems the fish never have heads. Ha ha do they steal them from the local fish market 😂
😂 👍
6/3/25 starting around 16:48 and for ten or fifteen minutes there were a series of close flybys on a single osprey in the nest by four or more birds that I think were ospreys. I don’t think they were paying respects.
I was away from the cam for awhile. So sad to not see the little ones.
Glenn, any chance of posting videos just before they disappeared to when they were gone? Did your camera feed show anything indicating they went down the middle? Or like a previous year when Carson took the dead hatchling out of the nest?
They are God’s creatures .. Part of his plan for them.
This is so sad.
Have we been able to determine exactly what happened to the chick’s? Video?
what has happened to the chicks?? 🙁
I’m so sad for Rachel. She is by herself at the nest. It tough to watch.
There is the possibility that foster chicks may be put in the nest. Wouldn’t that be fabulous?
So sad but that’s nature. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to witness/watch?
I was wondering if the 3 babies are still alive?
I feel so bad for Rachel (and of course Carson). Seems like she’s been spending a lot of time in the nest. She was there most of last night, too.
9:46 Rachel inspecting empty nest.
5/31/25 There were three instances of three birds in the nest at the same time with one chased off by the other two. 10:01:55, 12:27:27 and 12:41:06
What’s up with that?!
don’t know. there have been other similar skirmishes.
so it would seem that they are trying for another clutch. i believe it’s usually 10 days for an egg to hatch after mating, not sure if it’s the same timeframe for the second go round. i wish them well🥰🤞🙏
That is such great news! I sure hope everything works out too. The good takeaway is that they could be here longer this season if she does end up laying an egg(s)! 🤞
the weather will certainly be warmer than late may has been and even the human snowbirds are staying later into the fall🤷♀️😂
Just saw them mating, so I guess we see what happens 😎😊
he brought her a fish
she took it and flew off with it.
around 5:35 am