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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.
Around 8:38 the baby got knocked down and didn’t get up. It seems whenever I have the opportunity to check, the baby doesn’t get fed. I hope others have seen them all being fed.
No baby # 3 is doing fine. But the other two are quite pushy.
Yes at least one seems very aggressive. That poor pecked on baby!
Thanks Mom and Dad for taking good care of us
Great pics. Thanx for the updates everyone
It’s 4:25 pm on May 25. All three chicks are alive and well. Gonna have a bite to eat now that Dad is back.
Yay, they seemed to have recovered!
Uh-oh, Two were stepping on the third, then on aggressively pecked the back of his sibling. Pecked one is not moving. I hope it is just taking a breather, but I don’t think so.
On 05/25 around 08:15:20 the little bird visited and stole a piece of nesting material. It hopped all over the nest and Rachel watched it but didn’t care at all.
Lunchtime
All three eating 🐟 happy day!
The littlest one was stuck under the fish tail.
Yummy sushi for the whole family!
Feeding time!!
Oh yes. So cute. All 3 chicks waiting for lunch.
What a great photo! Beautiful!
Pic of 3 chicks at 7:23 am 5/20, while mom and dad are renovating the nest
Thanks Dianne! I added a video clip of that segment on the highlights page.
So cute! They are growing fast!
What a good momma. Feeding all three babies this morning. But she has her back
To the camera and I can’t get a good photo
Awww he’s so good feeding her while she chick sits. Bet this is Charlie.
I see three
Dinner time!
We have 3!
Three chicks!!!
No fear. One parent returned at 8:06
Chicks unattended at 8:05
At 6:20 am dad shows up with a little breakfast. Mom takes a few bites and finally I see her feeding the two chicks. Last egg still hasn’t hatched
Checked in around 9:20 this evening. Nice view of both chicks! Rachael was moving the remaining egg around too!
Some of us on the interpretive staff at Waquoit Bay thought it would be a little awkward calling Carson “dad” and the little chick “Papa” when teaching lessons. I found that the ICAO code words from 1949 listed “P” as “Polka” which could be a cute name for a little osprey- any thoughts on this?
-Emily
that sounds great to me
Emily, now that you mention it, I completely understand that from a teaching standpoint it does sound a little awkward. Polka works just fine with me!
And Pookie too.
Polka sounds good to me too. Good to have a backup alphabet – thanks, Emily! And if anyone wants to call it Pookie for short, that’s fine too (Thanks, Ann!). For now, we have two babies (Oscar and Polka). As to the third egg… let’s not count our chickens until they hatch.
Oscar and Papa being doted upon by both parents is the best thing about my day! Warm temps, only 2 mouths to feed… hopefully this sets them up for a successful year. Rachel and Carson deserve it.
Will the 3rd egg not hatch?
I think the 3rd is hatching now
Both parents in nest feeding two chicks.
Welcome to the world, Oscar and Papa!
Two hatchlings
Two babies!
Yes! Good view of the two chicks at 7:00.
WOW!! Excellent
At 6:30 am Mr shows up with a fish. Shows it to the Mrs then flies off with it. She needs to get a good divorce attorney. LOL.
If we go with the same naming scheme, this first hatchling is “Oscar,” to be followed by “Papa” and “Quebec.” No cold temps are forecast for their first couple of weeks which is great news. Rachel and Carson deserve some help from Mother Nature for a change!
I love the naming convention started! Oscar, Papa and Quebec – woo hoo! May the force be with them!
Yes, I hope Mother Nature is kind this year!
I see a baby!
There is a hatchling
We have a hatchling! Hoorah!
Dad arrived at 6:15 with a fish for mother and baby
Oh yeah – Rachel chowed down! She was one hungry mama!
That’s an awesome picture!
Yes. The egg closest to the camera has hatched. Congratulations to mom and dad
Awesome!
Great!!!! 👍
I think I see a chick
Awwwwww love it when Carson feeds Rachel! 17:42 5/15/26
Pray no chicks come till Monday, after the upcoming 2 day deluge.
I think shes hearing chirping