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Welcome to “Season Four” of our osprey cam! Carson arrived on March 20th, 2025. 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 2025 (“Season Four”)
View highlights from 2024 (“Season Three”)
View highlights from 2023 (“Season Two”)
View highlights from last year (“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.
Wonderful of all of you who do this work and provide the webcam. The short video showing the repair of the platform leaves me with two questions: a) Do they really never bolt it the support or is that just edited out? b) Why is the middle cross piece placed intentionally a few inches higher than the other cross pieces?
Hi Steve. The platform is securely screwed in to the supports. That part was just edited out. The middle board was moved higher since the pole extends a little bit above the cross beams. With that adjustment, it was a perfect fit!
The new nest box is beautiful! And just now there are 2 birds there – I am assuming Rachel and Carson! And good to see the beginnings of the new nest, as well! Thank you so much for such a quick repair.
What an awesome thing to see the response to rebuild their home – I have to say that I was extremely concerned with the installation persons safety. He was not harnessed in working aloft. OSHA would not like to see this video. Very very dangerous.
My very same thoughts Frank, but so grateful for him and all the volunteers for the amazing job they did getting it up there but it was pretty nerve-racking watching him not using a harness.
Totally amazing to see the commitment to these wonderful birds. I have been waiting all winter for the m to return.
Finally moving some sticks around. Maybe they knew it was not sturdy enough to hold a finished nest!
I was thinking the same! Love the shiny new platform
April 2, 2023 at 7:02 pm. Carson brings fish to Rachel.
Your team is amazing!! Thank you! Must read…Return of the Osprey
Thank you for the continuation of this great project! A donation has just been sent. You do a wonderful job with this!
If you can, please support The Osprey Project of Falmouth. Besides saving our season, they do amazing work!
I enjoyed watching last season and will make a contribution. Nice to hear live sound. Looks like the camera has been repositioned to hopefully minimize obstructed viewing
writing the check now
actually just did PayPal
Osprey back! 4/2 at about just around 2 pm!!! Then a second one flew in but didn’t land. Who I cannot tell. Also appears a little work on organizing the nest has happened. Yippeee!
Video of the repair effort was just added to the highlights page.
I’m so thrilled and thankful for the folks who made the repairs in record time. Thank you so much.
Installation person. Must not be afraid of heights & an Osprey follower. Thank you for braving the wind too
Thank you to everyone involved in the response to and the repair of Rachel and Carson’s platform for their new nest I am looking forward to their return to begin building it again.
Thank you to everyone who organized and helped repair the Osprey nest.
Rachel and Carlson will be very happy.
Just send in a donation and hope you get manny more.
EHR
thanx for providing the new digs. to me, it looks like 3 ospreys circling and when one lands and another comes in, they both end up taking off. Is this typical “couple checking out new home” or is it 2 males trying to lay claim to the nest? also, a crow stopped by and was feasting on a fish before an osprey got it off.
Bravo and thank you to the Osprey version of Habitat for Humanity, who saved the season!❤️
Traveling back to the Cape from Fla. been watching since they first arrived . Great job OP repair crew, looks like the ospreys can begin again ! 🙌🏼
Hallelujah!
First landing of the pair
Pure JOY!
So grateful to Glenn & those who took quick action
April 2, 2023 AT 9:49 .m. An osprey flew in to the nest but left almost immediately.
First brief landing at 9:48 am.
Watching from Florida. Great job fellow Cape Codders.
Nice job…and fast! Thank you for fixing it.
I hear Osprey!!! Sounds of happiness!!!
Great job with the new platform and sticks. ❤️
Wow, great work! They even supplied the sticks!
Rachel was waiting this morning…Carson flew in for a brief moment, I wasn’t fast enough to get the pic but they were mating YAY!
That was a great job installing the new platform. Hats off to all involved.
Our heroes have arrived!
Sad news!!! My friend who lives in Falmouth told me this next was blown away in a recent storm. The Osprey Project is planning of installing a new platform ASAP. Still I wonder how this will affect Rachel and Carson and a new generation. I am just so sad about this.
Excellent news! Thanks to all involved, my husband just said you know you are in Cape Cod when there’s an Osprey rapid response team lol. Will be interesting to watch.
Happy to know the nest will have some needed repairs taken care of in the morning 👍🏼 Good luck to the OP repair crew 😉.
Watching from Florida. Maybe try a used satellite dish instead of wooden beams. Drill holes in the bottom to let the water out and attach it to a good sturdy base.
Oh my! I am glad to hear the platform can be rebuilt soon! Just as we have a better camera – but it sure looks like the old one was rotten. Maybe this is why Rachel and Carson were not working on the nest itself!
Good to know I wasn’t the only one thinking that their hearts just weren’t into building the nest. Kinda like they knew something wasn’t right and thinking what to do next. They tried to fill the middle gap a few times and then started staring at it a lot
Thank you Glenn for keeping us informed with the updates at the top of this page, above the the live cam feed. Thank you to everyone involved for responding so quickly to the situation. It is comforting to know Reserve staff are watching closely 😊
Replay the video of the nest blowing off the platform and it appears that there was NO middle to nest. The nest may have had a serious problem for eggs or chicks this season.
Did someone move the camera somehow? Suddenly it is further away than it was the other day!!!!
Looks like the nest is in disarray. Maybe the gusty winds played havoc on it.
From highlights
https://www.friendsofmashpeenationalwildliferefuge.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Nest-platform-blows-off-4-1-23.mp4
here is the nest blowing away
oh my gosh! Thank you for sharing. I can’t believe that happened. I see the comment – above the video – that says we will assist rebuilding the base and they will build the nest. This will be interesting to monitor.
Sandy, thank you for posting the link.