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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.
8-4-23. Observing nest for last hour or so .It is now 9:04 p.m. Rachel perched at further end of nest. Chick also in nest constantly calling for food. Chick has been flying off but returns almost immediately. Then at 9:04 p.m. chick returns from short flight coming in to land in area where Rachel is perched. Unfortunately did not make the landing. Observed chick falling to ground apparently. Rachel still perched but is looking down toward the ground. I’ll post further if I see any changes.
Have been observing osprey in the sky, riding the thermals. Such an amazing thing to see!!
Why is one chick alone all the time?
Watching ….
Awwww! Two chicks are back…
A tiny camera on an Osprey with streaming video would be incredible! To see as they see.
In-coming
Great photo, Dena!
Morning pic
👍
Great shot!! Thanks 😊
You did a good job, Rachel.
Check in here: https://ccmnh.org/attractions/osprey-cam Tough year on this nest but the one has not yet fledged.
Surferboy, What was the cause of the chicks death on July 12.?
I’m not sure but here are two different takes on it. The first one posted by Betty. The second by Carol.
I just spoke with CCMNH about the missing chick. About a week ago it disappeared from the nest overnight when there is no camera. They don’t know what happened. They did go out into the marsh looking but found nothing. Also Mom likes to perch on top of the camera so when the chick looks alone it is not. So sad, they also had a very young chick pushed out of the nest early on. So glad our chicks are doing so well.
The chick that hatched from the egg that was laid in that nest died from starvation. The other chick that was fostered into the nest was older and bigger, so it was keeping that one from eating. There wasn’t enough fish being brought to the nest, either. I watched that chick die. It did not disappear from the nest. I saw the female remove the body a day or two later. So sad.
Thank you for the update! Yes, so sad and hard to watch.
Bittersweet picture. Thinking of old times – not quite ready to leave forever. I will miss seeing these guys grow up.
Check in here: https://ccmnh.org/attractions/osprey-cam Tough year on this nest but the one has not yet fledged.
Guarding the nest…not quite ready to let go
Sounds like there’s definitely someone standing on the camera. A lot of scritchy sounds of feet re-adjusting…I’m guessing Rachel (or one of the others) is roosting just out of our range of vision.
Now wish we had another camera facing this camera that continually pans left to right! Then we could see how close they do roost. OK – wishful thinking 🙂
Hi, responded…
Point taken A2Z but unfortunately, never mind this sandbar, but worldwide there are hundreds of thousands of raptor nests mounted on electric related poles and towers.
Then 3
<3
(That’s supposed to be a heart emoji…. oh well! 😉
2 for break-fish
Osprey at ball field Shore Rd Pocasset near Monk Park
Absolutely! I moved here 7 yrs ago and at that time a pair was there & each yr since. I believe ball field maintenance cut power during nesting. I saw 2 adults & 2 juveniles who are flying. Seems like many athletic fields have Osprey nests. Noticed another at Falmouth High-school…
Looks like Rachel has a fish but no one to share it with.
Tuned in at 10:27 7/31 to find the male and female (no offspring) on the nest. Have not seen the male sit on the nest like this since mating time. 10:35 they flew off together.
Do you remember when Rachel left last year? I seem to recall once the chicks are flying & fishing she departs leaving Carson & chicks behind to master their skills & build strength for their 1st journey south…maybe what you saw was their moment of accomplishment & soon it will be time to migrate south
I would agree with your recollection. At least one of her offspring is not fishing yet, maybe both. I have read research that says the female will leave the nest but not the area. They say she will spend some time locally rehabing herself through food and flight before she is ready to migrate.
Looks like this chick is still asking to be fed…thanks for the info
Beautiful Rachel alone at the nest on a gentle summer evening.
Majestic!!!
Stunning pic!
❤️
Thank you for the photo
screenshot of the 3 juveniles in nest 7-30-23 9:17 a.m.
7-39-23 9:11 a.m. 3 juveniles in the nest?
Going to be a beautiful Cape Cod day…
Where our little friends may winter…
https://www.audubon.org/news/where-do-ospreys-go-winter
Simply amazing! Thank you
Early breakfast …..5:25 am
Everything was peaceful in nest with Rachel, Delta & Echo. Then lighting & heavy rain moved in. Both chicks performed a rain dance. Not sure if they are celebrating the rain or not. Pretty lively…Rachel just watched
Nice picture
Thanks! Maybe Glenn will post 07/29 22:04ish
Got it – thanks! Luckily, the really bad storms just missed our area!
Very lucky! Hail & tornadoes would not be fun for us or the Ospreys
I wonder if the rain felt good, cleaning the feathers off.🤷♀️Great shot of the action!
22:04 still trying to fly away.
Just before 22:00. Rain started. Chicks are flapping their wings like crazy but looks like rain might be holding them down. Wonder if they want to go to the trees for protection. Rachel just watching
How do you know?
Rachel with one chick – and a white feather pulled out of place on her left wing.
It was interesting to see that when there were two fish and no-one would share with the third, Rachel was near by, flew in and took one of the fish to the third.
3 juveniles and Rachel
Rachel feeding the 3rd chick
Carson just flew in a portion of a fish. Don’t know who’s who of the 3 chicks but two of them are eating. We need to mark them so we can differentiate!
Fish brought live and flapping!
7 am
Saw that too and one of the 3 chicks just takes it for him/herself! As Dena calls it – Break-fish for 1 has been served lol!
so I’m thinking that the visiting osprey chick has been in nest since at least 6:43. about that time there were 2 chicks and at first I thought one was trying to mount the other but perhaps the chick was trying to get the other to leave the nest. (s)he did, but then returned as did Rachel. Rachel and the resident chick have been cornering the visiting chick and continue to verbally screech at it 🤷♀️
must have been a big day for these two, in deep sleep. So cool to see them together in flight & on nest. They seem to have bonded. Totally different than Alpha, Bravo & Charlie.
I noticed this last night and was surprised that they sleep so close to the edge of the nest. Don’t fall
Selfish sibling 😞
At 20:30 7/28 one of the juveniles had the last 1/4 of a fish. Over the next 4 minutes the female made 3 attempts to get some of it and 3 times her offspring gave her the beak hook to the top of the head.