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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.
I JUST figured out what these chicks look like to me…. they look like someone glued chicken wings onto a quail! : )
Watching them earlier in the year it looked like redecorating. Carson would bring a twig and Rachael would place it somewhere. Then she would say no I don’t like it there and turn it over. And move it again until it was just right. But it’s really an amazing bit of engineering. Hope there all safe.
Wow must be windy down there tonight. Osprey are all hunkered down low. The whole nest is shaking! It is amazing how they can make a nest so strong and secure using only tiny twigs wound together. I wonder what would happen if we tried to do that.
Chick’s look hot – panting. Probably normal cooling response
Can you see the biggest on (bottom left hand side of the picture). With his head hanging over the edge of the nest. He is taking in the sights.
Oh wow! He is definitely rubber-necking trying to check out things down there!!
I think they all look healthy enuff to survive this season. Nest is gonna be a bit tight with these guys or gals getting so big
All the ospelets can eat buffet this am!
Yes, they all ate well. Wonderful to see.
Parent back 6:21!
mom left! 6:20 pm
all three chicks alert!
Seems like there is peace among siblings only when there are 2.
6/2 8:19 one of the larger chicks is attacking the little one.
Momma just reprimanded the bigger one. Play nice now
I saw the biggest one go after the other two the other day. They were both hunkered down to avoid the biggest one.
The little one woke up quickly as soon as dad arrived with lunch.
Wow the two biggest are craning their necks to see out of the nest. The little one is asleep in front of MOMMA
6/1 10:30 am. Breakfast is served. They have grown so much already! All three look good, even the youngest.
Yay! The sound is back. I realize I like the sounds almost as much as I like watching the Osprey thank you to whoever got that back up and running!
he/she is eating when not getting beat up by the big one!
Little one not eating…yet?
The little one has been getting some good bites in this am
I see 3 chicks looking healthy! Phew!
No sound on the camera today.
Rachel is working hard to keep the chicks protected in this wind. Brutal!
hang on Rachel-it’s gonna get worse before it gets better-and sunshine next week 🙏🤞💨🌧️
After a hardy breakfast. The 3 are left to sun themselves in the nest. So glad to see them thrive. I think all three will make it this year
Lots of nest building this morning. Must be getting ready for storm.
Feeling better about “the little one” as it’s looking larger and eating nicely as I observed today. Not sure when we are able to tell the sex of each hatchling. Also, Rachel spent some time fortifying the nest today with some large pieces of bark!
8:52 am that annoying osprey did a flyby. Both Carson and Racheal went on the defense.
After having a hardy breakfast, the three of them are in a food coma.
Finally the little one pushes up to the front of the line and it’s getting his share of breakfast.
Nice family of 5
Finally! The little one got a good feeding!😊
Today’s The Point on WCAI Radio featured a great piece about ospreys on Cape Cod. If you missed it, you should be able to listen to it here:
https://www.capeandislands.org/show/the-point/2026-05-28/osprey-the-unofficial-bird-of-the-cape-islands
Thank you Glenn, Just listened to this & really enjoyed it.
Glenn, thank you for sharing. I haven’t gotten a chance to listen to it yet but have saved the link. I’ll get to it eventually!
Is the light gray one gonna make it 😞
Their coloring changes as they grow. The youngest chick is 4 days behind the oldest. At less than 2 weeks old, that can make a big difference in their appearance and size. We hope all 3 will survive.
I just saw the littleone get quite a few bites of fish!
Chick’s growing so fast. Are there still three?
It’s uncanny that the Father, Carson, always seems to deliver a feast for five.
Yup – he just brought another feast for 5 at 10:22am.
View2
Good view of the little ones
Wow about 9:30 today Carson was feeding Rachel along with the little ones!
I’m impressed. I just saw the same thing as I rewound back to 12:52 this afternoon. Carson was feeding all of them (3 chicks and Rachel!). Gotta love it.
We visited you on May 5, 2026 when we were vacationing in Falmouth. It was great to see the osprey fly to and from their nest. Since May 10 I’ve been watching the osprey family whenever I sit at my computer. I patiently waited for them to hatch. Now I love watching the feedings. I’ve even watched the male put fish into the female’s mouth which I never thought would happen. I will watch them every day until they fly away! Thank you for allowing me to do this!
10:14 Baby chic being pecked again by sibling and was down for a bit, but is moving now. I know it’s nature but hard to watch the sibling rivalry, also, doesn’t seem like the baby gets enough food to get strong and grow…
Mom back at 9 am
Unattended nest at. 8:56 am