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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.
Chicks are so enormous. And those wings!!!!!! Wow
Some moments today when everyone was very vocal. I love listening to an osprey chorus.
2 females and 1 male ?
According to google and my VERY uninformed calculations, the chicks should fledge on July 4th! Wouldn’t that be awesome!
Well certainly lots of wing flapping from Oscar he looks like he’s getting in his practice!
The eldest chick now feeds itself.
These little ones aren’t so little anymore! Seems like they grow bigger by the hour! Even the little one! Rachael and Carson have really done a great job or rearing their young so far!
how many fish on average are brought to the nest daily? Also,what species of fish do they prefer?
I’ve seen many herring and pogies and lately I’ve seen a couple of Black Sea bass, scup and a large trout. Last year I saw the biggest summer flounder I’ve ever seen and a small shark. Today it was a big Black Sea bass at 14:35.
thanks Eddie, they eatin good lol!
Looks like someone moved or zoomed in the camera. The view is not as good, with the bottom of the nest blocked out.
Glenn zoomed in a bit so that we could see the bands.
I agree. Glenn, when you get a chance, would you please zoom out – maybe back to what it was? A view of one of the chicks and part of the nest is not in the field of view when they are sitting near the camera.
Agreed. Today looks even more zoomed in than yesterday. More of the nest is now out of frame.
I backed off the zoom about halfway. Let’s give it a day or two and see how that seems as they move to different parts of the nest and when the bands may be visible.
I was wondering if a different camera would help. This one seems somewhat pixelated while others I’ve looked at have a much sharper picture.
Looks like Dad is watching over the chicks while Mom must be searching for breakfast. The two biggest are lined up waiting and the smallest is closer to the camera She usually feeds two of them first so there is no fighting.
Yay! Glad to see Carson on duty.
Oh, he just showed up!!
We saw Rachel wave Carson off twice a few days ago when he tried to land. Maybe she told him to get lost. Hope he’s okay somewhere.
There are other osprey nests in the area. It might have been one of the other osprey, not Carson, that she chased off.
Is Carson still around? Every time I i see someone bring a fish in lately it’s Rachel. I’m getting concerned. Hopefully I’m just missing him.
I must be missing Carson too. I haven’t seen him when I check in.
Awesome photos and videos of the osprey and owl!!
Looks like the chicks are 2 female and one male?
Great shots. Thanks so much!
If you notice a change in the view, I zoomed the camera in, so the bands and ID numbers are more clearly visible. The yellow auxiliary bands are numbered S35, S36 and S37, from oldest to youngest, so “Oscar” is 35, “Papa” (or “Polka”) is 36 and “Quebec” is 37. I also just posted some videos and still shots to the Season Five highlights page.
Dont see any videos of banding yet. Just stills.
I just uploaded an additional video from the ground of one of the chicks being banded.
Amazing pictures what magnificent creatures close up! That must have been such a thrill for you and all the volunteers! Thank you for all you do.
Glenn, thank you for posting! The chicks look so much bigger when being held.
Is there any way to track the chicks when they finally fly off
We will get reports of sightings of the banded ospreys when they are reported to reportband.gov. The bands are not electronic devices, so it is dependent on people submitting a report. The numbers are designed to be visible with binoculars.
Just noticed the chicks got banded. Any video’s of the procedure?
Yes, just posted to the highlights page
If you are able to rewind till yesterday morning around 8:10ish
Any chance the library program was recorded?
No, sorry. The library does not record their events.
Hi Glen
Dave and I want to thank you for your wonderful and informative talk we attended this afternoon.
Thanks for sharing the Osprey experience.
David and Edith Ross
Glad you enjoyed it – thanks for attending!
Clock is wrong by one hour est
Sorry bar at bottom was not at current time. Clock is correct!
Nice job on the banding today.
It looks like all 3 got yellow bands.
Is there a reason they didn’t use different colors to identify oldest to youngest?
Where did you see that Merc?
i did not see it in highlights!
Rewind to 8:10 this morning.
The bands each have a different number. Glenn spoke about that at the library this afternoon.
I believe different colors are used to denote different species. It wasn’t an option we were given.
have there been any comments today
Yes can you see this?
I cant access the comments
The 3 chicks were successfully banded this morning! I will post videos and more pictures from the ground later today. Many thanks to WBNERR and DCR for supporting the process! Here’s a close-up shot of the oldest chick, Oscar.
What great close up!
I can’t wait to hear more about the banding at your talk this afternoon at the Library 👍
Is there a video of the banding process from this morning?
Wow that was interesting! I wonder if he could feel how close Rachel was divebombing him!!
Last one put up a fight
Taking the chicks to be banded
Great photos! Thanks
When the chicks get banded today. Will we
Find out the sex of each chick??
That would be fantastic!
No, at this age, sex cannot be determined, even up-close.
Im not seeing any comments for many days.
Try refreshing the page. Then scroll down to view the comments.
Chick’s wings are gigantic! Hard to believe they can grow so fast!!!!
That bigger one is a brute. Pecking the heck out of his sibling while mom tears the fish apart to feed them.
On Monday at 2:00pm, I will be giving a 1-hour presentation about ospreys at the Mashpee Public Library. The program is titled “A Cape Cod Love Story: Rachel and Carson” and I’ll be sharing highlights of the last five years of the osprey cam. I’ll also talk about the banding operation which is scheduled to occur that morning (see note at the top of this page for details). Learn more about this iconic species and our efforts to record and document their activity. The program is free and open to the public.
Wow what a great view of Mom pulling apart fish to feed chicks.
Sure is. It’s nice they’re big enough she can leave and go fishing for them.
I just read in FB “The Osprey Project Falmouth” post that on Monday morning at 8am the chicks will be tagged! Woo hoo!
It will be nice to see once fledged/migrated at end of season how many years will it be before they return and will they be the interlopers!!! I don’t want time to fly (no pun intended), but can’t wait to see how it all unveils.
Thank you Osprey Project for tagging.
So glad this will happen! I am hopeful for the small one thriving and now we will know.
Is it just me or does she watch the sunset every night?
What a nice thought. Maybe she does!
Dad brought in a fish at 11:49. Everyone is excited!
The whole nest is very hungry this morning!
It is going to be tight quarters soon! So happy all three made it this far, especially the little one.
I just had the same thought. That great line from Jaws come to mind-
“you’re going to need a bigger boat”!
Yes!
They are starting to flap their wings!