An osprey returns! Is it Rachel? (3-20-25)
The Great Horned Owl who has been visiting the nest at night seems to sense that the ospreys have arrived to make the nest their home for the season. As soon as it lands, the owl is startled by an approaching osprey. It then is wary of the osprey’s call, and about 5 minutes later, it is chased off by Carson. (3-28-25)
A herd of 6 deer roam around under and near the nest one evening. (This is shown at 10x speed to track their activity over a 6-minute period.) (4-6-25)
First egg! Laid on April 9th at 7:11pm! (4-9-25)
Second egg. After a cold, rainy day, Rachel lays her second egg on April 12th at 6:43pm. (4-12-25)
Third egg. With Carson there to watch, Rachel lays her third egg of the season. (4-15-25)
Carson brings back a large stick and places it right on top of Rachel. It took a little wrangling to move it to the side, carefully protecting the eggs, giving us a good view of the 3 eggs in the nest. (4-16-25)
Spider at night. While Rachel sleeps, a spider spins and climbs its web right in front of the camera lens. (4-28-25)
Intruder attack! In this montage of 3 clips over several minutes, Rachel does an amazing job warding off a threatening intruder, while taking great care to protect her 3 eggs. (5-1-25)
First 2 chicks! The first 2 chicks (Lima and Mike) emerged this morning, shortly after 4am. Here are some great early views of them. (5-20-25)
Three chicks! The third egg hatched sometime this morning. Here’s a short clip of Rachel being fed by carson before she gets up to show all 3 of them. This year’s hatchlings are Lima, Mike and November. (5-21-25)
(Sadly, the third chick, November, did not survive the stormy weather just before the Memorial Day weekend. Rachel did an valiant job trying to shelter the chicks from the cold, wet weather.)
Big fish delivery. Carson brings a huge fish to the nest, which is noticed by a few nearby ospreys. (5-24-25)
Feeding time. Lima and Mike, now 8 days old, get fed by Rachel while Carson looks on. (5-28-25)
On Thursday, May 29th, we experienced the devastating loss of the remaining two nestlings. We can only speculate on why this occurred – perhaps malnutrition, illness, weather or some other factor. It is likely too late in the season for Rachel & Carson to begin again, but they will likely continue to frequent the nest to guard it as their own. We have been fortunate to see the successful fledging of 2-3 chicks over each of the last few seasons, and hope for a better outcome next year.
In an attempt to learn more and prevent a future recurrence, the nest was inspected from above and from below. No hole was found where a chick could have easily slipped through. The most likely explanation is that the chicks died and were removed by the adults. Regardless, additional nesting material was added to the nest. Thank you to the Falmouth Osprey Project and Moriarty Tree Service of Falmouth! (6-4-25)
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.
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.
Learn more about osprey on Cape Cod.
If you’d like to show your appreciation for the nest cam, please Support the Friends of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge! Thank you in advance!