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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.
Thanks Glen! I can’t believe it was a baby shark – holy crap!
Posted! Check out the highlights.
Yummy 😋
ya, 6;20 am breakfast for momma osprey Carson came with a good size fish, would be nice in my frying pan also, smile
Morning fish delivery 08/10 6:25am
Delta or Echo is squawking up a storm! Maybe we should consider live fish delivery via drone – LOL!!! I know it would send wrong message cause they need to learn how to fend for themselves but I like the idea! 😂🤣
🤔😹
Hi, I haven’t been on in a few days. I don’t see the second juvenile around. Any thoughts?
It’s so hard to tell which is which. Maybe both (all three?? including neighbor-kid Zulu) have been around, just not at the same time.
Hi Sandi, both juveniles were in next last night around 10pm looking very tired
6:30 am – Rachel delivers a nice-sized fish (no head) to…. Echo, probably.
Here:
Ospreys in Falmouth Great Pond fishing were highlighted in this Boston Herald article.
The link only worked for those with a subscription, so I took screenshots.
Article
More photos
More
More
More
I always have to be logged in to read the E- Edition.
…..glad you got it!
Sandy, thank you for posting all the photos! Nice to see that it made the Boston Herald.
Is that a small shark
Yes
My mistake water on the camera lens looked like the nest had water in it
Looks like they can catch fish right in the nest, a small pond
Pelting rain , winds and thunderstorm at 11:40 am.
how fishing was accomplished is no small feat!
We even had 2 tornados on the Cape today.
Delivery date/time 08-08 at 11:43:00 on
fish delivery
I just posted a few clips from the past few days. Sorry for the delay in catching up. Thanks to everyone for posting dates and times!
There was also an interesting event yesterday 8/7 around 11:39 am. The nest-sitting juvenile started screaming loudly at another incoming juvenile. As it was about to land, the local lunged at it to prevent it from landing and there was a brief scuffle. The local was pushed off the nest and the other landed. The local flew in circle and came back and kicked the other off the nest after another scuffle.
I tried to catch the scuffle but it happened too fast.
Glenn, thank you for posting. The pink sunset time lapse was – first – beautiful – but also had me ROFLOL (rolling on floor LOL) because it was time lapsed and the sounds of the squawking just sounded hilarious!
And thank you for that missed landing night time video and that fish fight between mom and chick!
Do we know where it’s parents are? In the area??
It would seem to me that the “homebody” juvenile might want to spend a bit more time flying to build up muscle for the fall migration. Or maybe it is just enjoying the summer and will think about it when the nights start getting cold.
Might want to spend a whole bunch more time learning to fish.
Thanks for the updates and photos, Dena! Those are harder to get, now that the young ones are fledged and often out of the nest.
Just ate the tail…
Fish-snack…
Osprey morning!
Nice!
Peachy pink sky..,
What a beautiful picture! Where is that? Thanks for sharing
Amrita Island, Garnet Rd near Megansett Rd North Falmouth. This nest is viewable at Garnet Rd.
So nice out there! Love that area ❤️
So gorgeous, Dena!!
And very peaceful
Now that’s a lot of little ones to feed…wildlife is a precious gift to all of us. ❤️ your pic!
😳that’s a lot of babies 🥴☺️!
It’s an amazing location to see nest, right by the road, you could almost reach out & touch it. Can also watch them fishing, lots of wildlife there too…great walking trails
Is Rachel falling asleep with a fish in her talons! Ha! Lol!
I was thinking the very same…food coma 😄 thanks for going by to check on fallen chick, nice to know things seem fine
Almost took fish away
Yay! Now attempting to self feed
Oops August 5th 19:55ish
08/09 19:53
Hoping Glenn will post
Now being fed
Feed me!!! Looks to be Carson with large fish…
1:40 pm Juvenile is eating. Interesting to see if he swallows the tail like adults do.
The male arrived at 11:33 and the female would not share leftovers with him.
8-5-23 at 9:53 am. Rachel arrives with a large fish. Juvenile just about finished eating its fish. Juvenile had brief challenge with Rachel but did back off.
the female delivered the fish at about 8:58 and I believe this is the younger of the two juveniles from this nest.
9:17 am, Aug 5, 2023…Chick in nest is eating fish. did not see who delivered it.
8:28 am, Aug 5th, 2023. One juvenile in the nest. Echo or Zulu?
I’m sure the juvenile on the nest right now (8:26) is the one who botched the landing last night.
I agree, and I believe it is the third chick Zulu who it appears it still dependent on the adult for food.
Based on last nights comments m, about one of the chicks having a tough landing, had me concerned so I took a drive there about 20 minutes ago and walked around. I did not see any injured chick on or around the nest – whewwww! Just same chick in the nest squawking. There were two osprey in the nest on the house with another one squawking somewhere in a tree. Not sure what is going on.
Glen are you able to post that troubled landing from last night?
Thanks, Merc
Thanks Merc, for going and checking it out. Based on the comments from last night, I was going to ask someone from WBNERR to do the same. Glad everything seems okay! I’m out of town for a couple of days but will check the recordings and post when I can. It’s great that we’ve got such an attentive and involved group! Thank you all!
Where does the juvenile that does not come back to the nest eat? I know its too young to fish, so does Carson or Rachel feed it somewhere else? Up in a tree?
8-4-2023 at 10:10 p.m. No sign of juvenile chick. (Echo or Zulu?) Rachel has not appeared to be agitated at what happened. Juvenile attempted landing to the right of Rachel perched at the further end of nest. She has been dozing off, preening feathers and occasionally looking down at the ground. She has been totally silent, no chirping. (there was a very light rain that fell for a short period of time). I just hope that perhaps the juvenile was able to recover and maintain flight after making it to the very edge of the nest but not quite far enough to land safely.
I saw this all go down too. That juvenile had been on the nest calling for food for almost 5 hours. I would think that with 40 feet to the ground it would have caught flight.
thanks surferboy, sure hope you are right!