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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.
Susan, Here is 11:00 time. All three up
And about. The little one seems to know when to lay low. As soon as the biggest one takes flight Things will get better. The biggest is such a bully. I hope he knows “ what comes around goes around “.
Thanks for the pic. I’ve just been concerned after the last few days of heat and very little nourishment that the little one was giving up. I really hope I’m wrong.
Looks to me that the little one is now deceased💔
It’s 6am Monday and little one doesn’t look like he is alive. I’ve been checking in every so often and am heartbroken to see this. I also haven’t seen any parents around. wth is going on??
I’ve been watching closely all morning, hasn’t even picked his head up. At one point Rachael stepped on his wing but there was barely any reaction😢 help please!
The little one is barely breathing.
It appears that the one bird (the smallest one?) is dying? From reading past comments, it appears that bird is not being fed, and no food means no water)? If it’s dying/struggling….why is no one removing it from the nest/rescuing it? Poor thing! And “LET NATURE TAKE ITS COURSE” does NOT fly because “they” interfered plenty to remove and tag all three birds. If nothing can be done for this bird, REMOVE IT AND PUT IT OUT OF ITS MISERY!
Wild Care might take it.
I agree with you.
Leaving and watching a bird being killed / starved is unconscionable.
Let’s hope Oscar fledges soon. Then Quebec will have a better chance for more fish.
This would be tragic if the little one does not survive after all it has gone thru to this point. So close to fledging. C’mon little one!
Little one hasn’t eaten in a couple days and oldest continues to bully him and prevent him from eating. Probably will only last a couple more days without food.
I guess rescueing a dying bird doesnt happen here.
Has anyone seen the youngest chick eating over the last few days? I have not seen the chick eat at all. This morning (8:30) the chick barely moved.
He was attacked by the biggest chick a short time ago. The big chick was picking the tiny one right up as he pecked at it. The little one is still breathing, but doesn’t look very good.
i have not, the little one was in that same position, not moving late last night. doesn’t look good.
It was moving around a bit this morning and was making hurt sounds when being attacked.
At 8;15 this morning the little one was moving around. I think he is fine. Just keeping he head down to protect
Himself.
My question is to Glenn, why is the one adult bird? Not sure if it’s the female or male. Just sitting there and not going and getting food. Just watching them. Doesn’t look like they’ll survive the night
It’s usually Rachel at the nest with the chicks. In the heat we’ve had the past few days, they are all conserving energy by staying fairly still in the nest. The oldest will probably fledge this week, but it will still be some time before they can hunt on their own. To those who say they are not thriving, I would argue the opposite. Just look at their size – they are all growing nicely and there’s no reason to think this won’t continue. It is typically the male who does most of the hunting and Carson is doing his job. He provides what they need, no more, no less.
Wish a wildlife preserve could rescue the little one.
How are they going to learn to fly when they’re weak from the Sun and no fish? It’s hard to watch mother nature can be a challenge and I don’t understand why both adult birds are not there together on helping on fishing
Friday morning I did a quick rewind thru the night hours. I was surprised to see Rachel feeding the two older ones at 1 a.m. Let’s hope they are getting more fish than we are aware of.
I will be glad for cooler temperatures tomorrow. These birds need a break!!
I see only 2 chicks…has one of them flown the coop?
Oh yeah – now I see the third chick!
It looks like they are banded on both legs. What’s the reason for that ?
Good observation Joselyn. The metal band on their right legs is a Federal band, and is designed to only be readable on birds that are captured or found injured or deceased. The left leg has a yellow PVC auxiliary band, which can be read through binoculars or a camera. The next time we have someone up on the nest, we’ll aim the webcam down a little so we can zoom in more without cutting off the bottom of the nest.
Little one is not thriving due to lack of feeding.
Is it common at this time of the breeding season to have what appears to be a smaller amount of fish brought back to the nest for feeding. The hatchlings seem to use up a lot of energy calling for food. I have not viewed any other sites and wonder if the same is viewed at this time of season when the birds are ready to fledge?
Ty
If I noticed that the babies have been left alone for part of the day and no fish, it looks like baby Carson came in around 6:30 with no fish.
Still 3 in the nest. I think one was hard to see. Behind one of the others.
Wow!!!!! Now there are two!
Hungar, the best incentive to leave the nest
Carson needs to start checking in with multiple fish for the oldest is not going to let anyone else eat now that he self feeds.
She has the little oneright there and is ignoring feeding him. Gross for any reason.
This evening it looks like the first hatch is getting just about all the fish that was brought back to the nest! Is that because the adult knows it will fledge soon so is being allowed to fill up?
She isnt feeding the little one. Sad. Mean.
The oldest chick will not share!!!!
Well THAT wasn’t very nice!
Wow, I just saw one of the chicks back up towards the side of the nest, bend over and shoot pee over the side! Never saw any of them with these types of bodily functions! Keep it out of the nest! Good job!
One of them did that in a past year. It hit the camera and we had to look at a white blob for days – until rain washed it away LOL.
I posted before looking at other replies. I think of that year rverytime I see one of them get ready to shoot.
One year they got the camera real good. Rain eventually washed it off.
WHAT A GOOD MOTHER SHIELDING HER BABIES
Chick’s look anxious to get going!
I have never seen a bird have a sneezing fit before! It was adorable! It was in the few minutes before this: 07-01-2026 23:39:43
They’re getting more interesting to watch. Flapping their wings and even hopping a tiny bit.
When will the young ones start to fledge?
The oldest hatched on May 15th and they generally fledge at about 55-60 days, so I would estimate between July 10-15. Soon we should soon start seeing them stretch their wings and flap around the nest to get ready.
Hope the Osprey chicks will be able to cope with the extreme heat coming this week. Does anyone have any insight into how they withstand the temps?
On hot days, Rachel shields the chicks from the hot sun with her wings. Ospreys don’t drink water; they get all of their fluid needs from the fish they eat.
They also pant like dogs do.
Is there no audio?
Seems fine. Check your volume and other audio settings.
Go back to 8:30 am this morning to see 3 adults near the nest. Can’t tell who they are but looks like one was an interloper.
Is something on the camera lens? View has been obscured since 6/28
Looks like a feather or piece of fluff blew up from the nest right onto the lens. A good rain should wash it away, or maybe a strong wind.
I think it’s a spider web. Saw the architect on there at one point.(I see that a lot on other cams)
Looks like little one got no dinner?
Rachel just did an amazing job of protecting her family.
Missed it. What happened?
At least one other Osprey was diving at mother and chicks.
Thanks Kathy!
looks like a beautiful day in the neighborhood! My sister and BIL are on the cape right now, they sent me the link to this site a week or so ago, cool way to spend a few minutes a day checking them out