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Welcome to “Season Three” 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 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.
One is stuck on that mesh 🥺
Looks like both feet stuck on that mesh as that one is eating.
Agree with Sandy re wire. Saw one of the chicks catch a talon on the wire – fortunately shook it free
Ospreys are very vocal this evening!
Nice to see the family together tonight.
Both “kids” home for the night. Mama Rachel there too. Like old times. 😉
remember…..
https://www.capecodtimes.com/videos/news/2022/04/08/epic-osprey-rescue-harwich-2013/9517699002/
Glenn, maybe theFalmouth Osprey group could come and remove it before a tragedy.?
Rescue needed.
That wire is deadly and needs to be removed.
remember the Harwich chick?
Thankfully he got it off, but very dangerous.
I mentioned this wire mesh thing below in post. That’s exactly what I thought may happen. Worse one could fly away with it caught up & then land in a tree or something and end up entangled…didn’t even want to say or think of that happening but it certainly is possible. Let’s all 🙏 somehow someway wire gets out of nest.
yes, definitely dangerous.
Chick stuck on the wire.
dinner is served and not a moment too soon-mom and the twins were loudly voicing their need to eat
so—it looks like delta made it “home” after a night out carousing🙃
At 15;36:19, another juvenile landed in the nest and the one there didn’t like it and it looked like they were fighting for a bit
If you look in the upper right quadrant of the pic, you’ll see – who I believe to be – Delta. Echo is perched in the nest. I dropped by earlier and checked around but don’t think I saw Rachel or Carson in any of the adjacent trees. There was a family of Osprey on the nest that is on the house.
great pic. now i can see where rachel perches on the camera pole
Excellent picture, many thanks!
Great shot!
Glen – thank you for posting each chick fledging! It’s very exciting to see.
Oh my gosh – those videos are precious! I am still smiling. Cannot imagine what that first flight must feel like. Did not imagine them soaring – in my mind I thought they’d hover and plop down under the nest platform. Just wow.
I was up at 2:30 this morning and was concerned about Echo sleeping right on the edge of the nest- worried he/she might fall off.
So now relieved flight was successful. Very exciting!!!
PBS. Osprey learn to Fly and Fish
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en-us&cs=0&sxsrf=AB5stBjyVUZ0BKES2bLEtueYFrsR6PCEMQ:1690034151463&q=Osprey+learning+to+fly&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOtIPqu6KAAxX7FlkFHfcSDoUQpboHKAF6BAgBEAM&biw=1080&bih=732&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5f749df2,vid:SEDjqpAPx9I
Soon the young ones will fish like this. (Screenshot from osprey photographer YouTube video. Great slow motion close ups).
Great close up!
Thanks Sandy. Its from this clip. Some fantastic slow motion video close-ups, especially after the 5 minute mark. https://youtu.be/JOfk4_o6Au4
9:37 echo took off again and can be seen flying around the nest and returned 9:40
has delta returned at all?
Fishing ….they learn by practicing.
https://www.google.com/search?q=teaching+osprey+tofish&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:96d32552,vid:2FIKN2A0XD8
😄 okay now I understand, I commented before reading the comments from this morning. Thank you Glenn for the fledging videos. Nice to see Echo flying off in the distance. I did not realize it took so long to teach them to fish. Nice to know we will still see them back in the nest as they continue to grow into there adult life.
No one teaches Osprey how to fish. They are hard wired.
That was 07-22-2023 09:01
It appears the chick, presuming Echo, came back to sleep and is still there. Nice to hear it is communicating with Rachel and Carson. One sounds close and the other further away. Maybe directing it to the ocean to teach it how to catch breakfast 😀
Both chicks have left the nest! I just posted the recordings of the two fledging yesterday and this morning.
Thanks!
video? Where do I find that?
So now my next question is, that chick that left the nest today is hungry, I didn’t see him get fed at all yesterday. So does he “know” how to fish or will mom and dad have to teach him? Will he be able to eat today? It seems my local osprey chicks do come back to the nest after they fly. I don’t know if they sleep there but I’ve seen them many times standing in the nest like a rest pit stop. Will these chicks come back I wonder?
They’ll lilkely come back to the nest to eat and sleep, but not consistently. They’re both out exploring their new world, resting on nearby trees or other structures and probably dining in other places as well. They’re too young to fish for themselves so are still dependent on the adults for food. This skill will be learned in the coming weeks.
It would be neat if there was a cam pointed to the water so we could see them fishing
Congratulations Delta and Echo, great job Rachel and Carson!!👏☺️
Return
That’s actually Rachel and Carson. I haven’t seen the chicks return yet, but they’re probably perched safely in a nearby tree.
Carson and Rachel landed in nest with fish. No chicks to share it with.
YOUR RIGHT, IM CHECKING IT AGAIN AT 7 PAST 6 AND NOBODY IS THERE, WHATS UP? JOAN
The nest is empty at 5:50 AM.
The nest is now empty! 5:48am
Echo took flight with Rachel…missed getting pic
07/22 05.48ish
There is some kind of netting debris in nest. This was on button left of next yesterday & now here…hoping Rachel removes from nest…
They probably won’t remove it since either Rachel or Carson would have brought it. Ospreys are known to use all kinds of man-made materials as part of their nests.
I mentioned thinking this could cause harm to the birds if their talons get caught up in it…from post above it appears this has already happened. Hopefully none of them fly off with it caught up & land in a tree only to get more entangled. I’m sure not much can be done at this point to get rid of it. I’m just gonna 🙏 this wire mesh gets thrown out of nest somehow.
Rachel returns, no fish
ITS 5 AM AN ONLY ONE AT HOME, I DO NOT THINK SHE HAD ANYTHING TO EAT YESTERDAY. PRAYERS FOR HER AND THE FAMILY LOVE JOAN
I wonder, too, how this whole process plays out. Rachel was able to bring 3 chicks to health last year so I am hopeful. Only time will tell.
The chicks hatched a day or two apart. Maybe the lonely one will fledge tomorrow or the next day.
I thought Delta would be back to sleep. Guess not. Well Echo, time to get air under those wings and go fishing. It is an interesting world out there for you to explore.
2:38 am 7/22
Still only 1 chick in the nest.
Agree this is hard to watch. But I believe parents are around. Plus the other fledging is somewhere close I’m sure and they need to watch over it as well. But still. Such a lonely night for this little guy
That “baby” is going to be fine. It will be flying very soon itself. Mom has been in and out all afternoon and she also sits on or very close to the camera.