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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.
Its great to see the Osprey return
Welcome back beautiful Ospreys 😊
I’m so excited! It’s not spring until these beautiful, remarkable birds return. Hoping for a successful season for them.
Is that really Rachel and Carson? My memory (what’s left of it) tells me that the plumage looks different now, with more white than during previous years, especially around their heads. Perhaps I should examine clips from previous years and make a comparison or maybe I’m just looney. Or, is it a natural thing happening. I wish they wore identification tags!
I wondered the same thing. I thought these 2 did look a little younger. I guess whomever occupies this nest will always be Rachel and Carson! I, too, wish they were tagged, but I believe Glenn had mentioned a while ago that funding was limited.
The decision to not attempt tagging the birds (both adults and offspring) wasn’t so much a funding issue, but rather the challenge and risk of accomplishing this in a nest that is over 40 feet from the ground. While I’d also like to see them all tagged, I love your idea of always calling the nesting pair Rachel and Carson, even in a symbolic way!
What a beautiful sight to see these 2 friends back again! Hoping and praying for a season with a different outcome than last year. It was heart breaking to see Carson and Rachel alone all summer. And, it’s nice to see all the familiar names posting on this thread, particularly Glenn, our educator.
Happy Spring 2026!
looks like carson is readying the nest 🤞🤞🤞
When I open the website I never get recent comments only stuff about 7 months old. What am I doing wrong. ?
Try re-accessing the site from our home page:
https://www.friendsofmashpeenationalwildliferefuge.org/
Make sure there isn’t a specific comments page at the end of the URL
Try Using Chrome
Sooooooo exciting!! They are back at 11:50AM!! Touli
Screen shot this morning 6:39
Canoodling at 6:39 am
The owl was on the nest at 2:45 am on 3/25
We saw him there around 9-9:30 last night for a bit too (3/24)
Welcome home Rachel and Carson and guest!! Hoping this year will be better than what they experienced last year 🙏🏻
I love all the pictures…thanks for posting them❤️
Would any one know why our pics are duplicating?
No, but I’ll look into it tomorrow. Thanks for mentioning this – I thought people were just uploading twice!
This will be corrected soon. It turns out to be an issue with an update to the comments plug-in we use on the site. They have found the issue, fixed it, and and we are just waiting for the new version to be released. Once this is installed, duplicates will magically go away, so feel free to keep posting pics in the meantime!
Always amazes me when they return…So very happy to see them back
With fish
Female is behind him calling for food
He landed with afish
Nice to see they are back.:)
Wow! What a thrill to see them.
Hip hip Hooray. Welcome back!
Huh? I’m going with Rachel in the back since she’s so vocal, but who are the other 2?
I think one of them is Carsen. The 2 others both had bibs, so one would be Rachel and the other may be a second male, despite the bib. Last year there was a similarly colored male on the nest with Rachel at the start of the season until it was chased away by Carson. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. So far I haven’t seen any aggressive behavior, but keep posting your observations. Screen shots (with time stamps) are appreciated. Welcome back to everyone!
Hi Glenn, I tried to post this earlier but it seemed my post never went through. I wanted to let you know that on 3/21 @ 6:59 in the morning, I observed a Squirrel roaming the nest . As I watched I saw the Squirrel go head first into a hole center of nest. I know it’s best to let nature be but after last years outcome I thought I should mention what I saw. Hoping for the best !
Thank you, Lori
oh no!
been watching for a few years and would like to post what’s the process?
Above the comments there is a box that says “join the discussion” Write your comments and put your name and e mail address below then tap “post comment” if it’s your first time it may take a while for it to post as it has to get approved If you want to add a pic there is an icon in bottom right of comment box that pulls up your pics
Rachel. Is that you?
Welcome home
Someone is here
Yeah! welcome home
Just saw one land and call too!
Just saw land in the nest!
I lived in East Falmouth for 37 years and still have family there. I visit you every day! So curious as to what is the sound of running water. Hoping this pair has better buck this year. Ospreys had problems everywhere last year!
Welcome back, Jane! The sound you’re hearing is probably wind noise. You can turn your volume way down until it’s quiet and you’ll still be able to hear the birds call, which can be very loud.
It’s all about to happen
I saw 5 ospreys in Falmouth this weekend! It’s so exciting!
I recently spent some time in our preschool classroom, and I’m so excited to share this year’s journey with them. We kicked things off by watching a few clips from last year, which sparked lots of excitement and curiosity
Wonderful to welcome our youngest viewers – thanks Kelly, for sharing with the children the wonders of nature!
Hello to Glenn and all the osprey lovers! Hopes for a great year ahead for the nest.
Welcome back Lorene, and everyone tuning back in for the season! Looking forward to the first sighting of ospreys on the nest; could be any day now.
Hello FMNWR!! Thank you for the Osprey Cam and all you do!! I read comments about protecting the young osprey chicks from falling through the nest.
Suggestion: tack onto the wood frame under the nest now, before nesting begins.
Highly recommend!! Touli
Hi Touli. Thank you for following our osprey cam and for your suggestions! Some experts advise against any type of screening or hardware cloth to avoid the risk of their talons getting caught in the mesh. Last year we added some natural material to the nest, but it is really up to the adults to sufficiently arrange sticks and other material to prevent the young from falling through. This approach more closely aligns with ospreys in the wild. We look forward to a successful season this year, as we have been fortunate to observe in the past.
There was a pair of osprey on the nest near the Orleans rotary yesterday.
won’t be long now until rachel shows . falmouth wildlife facebook page has a shot of an osprey on the nest at WHOI from 3/11/26
2:38 and the owl is on the nest
Around 7:30 tonight