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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.
If all the osprey were banded, it would help us understand what was going on now. If the attacker had a band, we could tell if it was an osprey from a previous litter, from another local nest or one that just showed up this year from some other place. If Rachel had a band, someone could go out to the area and see if she was hanging around or has disappeared.
I dont see a parent defending them, so the attacker may be a parent.
Perhaps trying to end their starvation.
Here’s a photo of one of the attacks. This is awful.
Here’s a close up of the leg band on the one who gets attacked. Glenn. Can you tell which one it is.
Almost looks like no more free meals and the dive bombing are the parents’ way of trying to get them to fledge. “Now get out of that comfy nest and learn how to fish like the other Ospreys”.
The chicks are not sufficiently developed to fish on their own for a month or more yet.
in normal years , after the mother flies south, the father stays and provides fish for the chicks until September.
looks like the chick was grabbed this time. I wonder if there is rivalry between the osprey in this nest and others that are close by. It’s still flying by at 8:23. I wonder if this attacking osprey got Carson and then Rachel?
Oh no! 7/10/26….8:07… Chicks being attacked on the nest!
here is where the chick was knocked to the side
At 8:05 ish this morning , other osprey dive bombing and trying to knock little ones out of nest .
the time when the chick was almost knocked out of the nest was around 08:08:06
This morning at 7:39 am adult osprey made three low passes over the nest.
There has been a lot of concern in why their has been a lack of food at this nesting site.There has also been a report that its been a bad year for the commercial porgy fishing fleet a primary food for the osprey.
What these public wildlife cams do is allow us the public to follow the birds nesting. I do not believe they’re intended to answer all the questions we have about this species. What they do is allow us to view them neating!
I would suggest to find answers to these questions contact the Massachusetts Audubon Society. They might not even be aware of what we’re viewing either way. Our input could be very beneficial to them as well as all the other sites for those who are viewing. They are professionals in this specific field.
thank you James for the info.
Good info! If humans have overfished their food source, wouldn’t that be reason enough for rescue or supplemental feeding?
About 7:40am an osprey kept dive bombing the smaller of the two and almost knocked it out of the nest, was crazy! Its getting tough to watch as these 2 seem to be starving, mother nature I know but it stinks!
if they want the time for the highlights, it was around 07:38:56 and 07:39:19
I saw an adult dive bombing the nest over and over around 7:20
Was another osprey just attacking one of them? It kept swooping down and looked like it was hitting the smaller one?
Yeah I was watching that too. Tried to get a photo. The poor chick is keeping his head down. Not sure if he is hurt. I can’t tell which one was the victim.
Hopefully mom or dad will feed these two soon. Havn’t eaten in 2 days
So I’ve watched for three seasons. I have not seen such a lack of either male or female lacking in delivery of sustenance as we witnessed over the last few weeks. We saw a chick succumb during a nor’easter and last year the clutch disappeared into the abyss. I am wondering if tagging some how might have led to the male first and then the female to not feed? But on the other hand I have never seen so many Osprey in our skies as we see today and as we have seen even on the fresh nesting phase there is driven instinctual behavior so imagine it in the skies over the hunting grounds and if there’s competition with even duels that might take a provider out or handicapped with an injury it is possible that might be the reason for Carlson seeming to vanish. In three seasons I’ve not seen an abandonment so it’s a very intriguing riddle.
I understand that Quebec died because the older ones were hogging the fish. I just can’t grasp why Rachel and Carson have deserted what seem to be two healthy osprey. I see a few other nests everyday in my travels. They all still have an adult present.
Been checking in but hard to watch even though it seems to be a tough season for ospreys and nature is sometimes hard to watch with our view of this nest. Has anyone seen Carson at all? It seems like from the comments I’ve been reading he hasn’t been around. I hope that he is ok. This mating pair is aging and I have to wonder if they’re aging out of their reproductive years.
There’s a very old female at the Hellgate cam who is still producing. They believe she’s the oldest known female at 30. I rewatched a few of the seasons here at this nest and there’s something not right. The parents in the past have continued bringing fish even during the chicks fledging. The male hasn’t been seen for days now Rachel hasn’t comeback to the nest since yesterday. It’s heartbreaking to watch.
This is Mother Nature at work ,,,, you cannot interfere.
I’m having an hard time understanding how banding the chicks was going to be for research purposes if they won’t even survive. If people want to study their migratory habits then maybe there should be intervention for food to help them grow enough to allow them to fledge and learn to hunt.
if we can band them then,why cant we help with food !!!!! Protected birds ?? I think not !!
The banding was for Identifying, there is no technology in the band to track migratory habits
Glenn, can’t we bring them some fish? Please?
No food at all since yesterday despite constant calling from both chicks 😟
I don’t think I can watch anymore, this is heartbreaking!!
I Agree. This is heartbreaking.
He’s baaaack
I wonder how they decide when they are ready to fly off. It’s a big step from flying across the nest to taking off into the wild blue yonder.
We have lift off!
thanx for pic 😍
Oh look at that.
The oldest fledged 7/9 8:44am
At about 8:45 this morning, one of them (sorry, I’m not sure which one) flew off!
at 8:44:47, he takes off – how exciting to see one of the little ones fly off
Oscar just fledged!
Oscar just flew the coop-8:45 am
Even if Oscar and Papa survive to fledging, will Rachel and Carson even bother to show them how to fish?
No one teaches an Osprey how to fish.
it is an innate ability and instinct which they are born with.
Eventually the fly eggs on the deceased bird carcass will become maggots which the birds can eat for protein.
For all viewing one of the many cycles of nature!
Also, I have watched the Osprey dive and fish for years but this year there has been no such activity.
As an observer who lives on the mouth of the Mount Hope Bay and Sakonnet River in Tiverton, RI. I have to think back that in early spring the Pogie Boats would troll all night for weeks , for the Menhaden fish, which is the same fish the Osprey prefer for the high Omega-3. This season , even the local fishermen have given up because they are not catching any fish! Mainly Bass which feed on smaller fish. This may shed some light in the sad events that are affecting our Osprey . I watch the Mashphee and Jamestown nest. Jamestown started with a clutch of four and now all four have passed . Mashpee nest is headed in the same direction. Are there any environmentalists or someone who has knowledge of all of that is occurring during this season that can shed any light ?
I dont know whether Osprey are subject to Bird Flu but i know in general, our bird population has decreased in recent years due to it.
Recently 23 Mass beaches were closed due to bacterial contamination. That may affect the fish and Osprey.
The worst worry i have is the slow releases of radioactive water into the ocean from the decommissioned Plymouth Nuclear Power plant.
Perhaps if any of these other fishing areas have nearby Nuclear Power plants the same releases happen. The releases are allowed by the NRC.
Are there Windmills in the ocean there?
I have to wonder, is it just our waters around here? I follow the Milford Point cam in Connecticut, mother is always there, and they are constantly eating.
Chesapeake Bay has been having almost no successful nests the last few years due to menhadden did off. Some group – sorry don’t remember which one – is doing a controlled feeding experiment to see if that will keep the chicks alive to fledge. New Jersey has had the same problem the last couple of years. No menhaden so no successful nests. In Connecticut, where I am, they are doing an enhanced monitoring project to get ahead of it, but again fishermen are not seeing menhaden close to shore where the osprey can get them. Since osprey have such a specialized diet, this does not bode well for them. I watched a webinar on this a few months ago before our osprey monitoring season started. You can probably find out more by googling the menhaden die off in Chesapeake Bay. I have watched this nest from the beginning, so am very sad to hear that the fish die off has already spread so far north.
Will eating the carcas make the others sick?
As sad as this is, it is a privilege to watch nature from this view. So much goes on in the wild we never see.
If you look closely at the deceased bird you’ll see flies all over it. That means her layer eggs and mother nature will start completing the decomposition of the body.
Flies are laying their eggs!
The shadow we saw of a bird flying overhead might have been Carson showing the chicks what is next for them ???
They might think Quebec’s carcass is food for them, delaying their need to fledge.
If they get hungary enough they will fledge. Rachael and Carson will lead them to the ocean and show them how to fish. That would be a sight to behold.
the parents don’t have to lead them they can see and smell the ocean from where they are…They just have to show them how to dive and catch fish
2:02 I haven’t see Carson in a long time.