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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.
It’s a WAG (wild ass guess) 🤣.
My heart goes out to that wounded soldier on the Patchogue nest. I understand nature and survival etc. but I don’t understand why some entity doesn’t go and rescue it. It will never be able to fish with that leg but I would think that there must be an aviary the would love to have it.
Just wonder where Carson and Delta are. Never see them at the nest
Early this morning Echo had a fish, did not see delivery though. Just eating & squawking. Funny, very vocal
Echo calling for breakfast and moving twigs around in the nest at 7:45 am.
Sometimes I wonder. Is Echo calling for breakfast, a colicky chick, mourning, being threatened, distressed, etc. She was squawking last night while she was eating and Rachel was sitting right there. Could not figure that one out.
Whoever that juvenile is, we can be pretty sure we’re always seeing the same one (going with “Echo” for now!) because it is ALWAYS squawking. Alone, with Rachel, eating, not eating. Last night I watched it/her sleeping on the nest with Rachel, and she squawked in her sleep! (Or rather, was head down, seemed to be fast asleep, woke up and squawked vigorously for a few seconds, and went right back to sleep.)
Just a little being with a lot to say, I guess. 😉
Is the adult Rachel or Carson? I can’t tell…
It’s the female, she brought this fish headless almost an hour ago.
Still receiving fish…
They had been there from just before sundown last night. The female arrived with a sizeable fish. It took the juvenile til late this AM to finish it.
Bierrgaard… has a fantastic book also!
Checkout Rob Bieargard’s website UNCC Biology..Extremely interesting! Probably spelled his name wrong..
👍
Not an Osprey, but an Eagle… 🙂
https://www.capecodtimes.com/picture-gallery/news/2023/08/15/photo-gallery-birdsey-cape-wildlife-center-releases-bald-eagle/8352851001/
Thanks Glenn I was worried they left this little one.
Dinner
Is this Rachel and a chick?
Which one?
It seems the one chick (I assume it’s the female) spends most of the time in the nest and is always calling for fish delivery. Should we be worried she is not learning to fish to take care of herself? She seems anxious.
Last year, the last chick didn’t leave the nest until around September 12th, so there’s still lots of time for them to learn to provide for themselves. No cause for worry at this point; it’s still early for the chicks to be self sufficient.
Glenn, Did Foxtrox (the other chick) leave or something bad happen? From what I think I am seeing, only one chick is at the nest and the other has gone AWOL. I so wish they were tagged so we could tell who’s who.
Correction – Did Echo (the other chick). . . . .
I was just reading mom go’s first then dad then baby’s
All separate
Maybe a silly question.if everyone leaves the baby then how does the baby know where to fly to?
It’s one of those mysteries of nature! Here’s a link to an interesting article about bird migration in general and the various theories about their instinctual ability to navigate: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/the-basics-migration-navigation/
Thank you!! Very interesting.
I hope not.
The Tribe over on Great Pond estuary seems to have already departed on their journey South.
Has our family of 4 on Waquoit flown off as well??
As of this morning, there are at least two still here. The mom and one juvenile.
Morning fish delivery
We’re working on the issue. Hopefully it will be back online soon!
I am able to see the nest now 👍
same here fatal error
All morning I have gotten the fatal network error
Black screen fatal error again.
I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe something to do with the thunderstorms we’ve had. I’ll have someone restart the equipment tomorrow to see if that helps.
Thanks, Glenn, live video is back.:)
Ditto – fatal error again. Glen – appreciate the reset/restart tomorrow.
Has anyone else come to the conclusion that the chick (I believe we are calling her Echo) spending most of the time in the nest is female? The brown necklace on the front is just like Rachel’s.
I had a picture for a while, left and when I came back, no picture but it said this at the top of the black screen, if it means anything to anyone HLS.js error: networkError – fatal: true – manifestLoadTimeOut
6:55 pm
Yep – that is what I was getting! After clearing my browsing history and now finally powering off/on my device, it is working for now!
No picture either 6:10pm
Not able to view
Seems ok, Merc. May have been a temporary issue. Are you able to view it now?
Hmmmmm. I said earlier that it was working after saying it was not working. But now it’s not working on my ipad – but oddly enough – it’s working on my iPhone. I don’t get it. I’ll just have a glass of champagne – ha! 🥂
Interesting you say that, I’ve only been able to view the web cam on my iPhone, I get the black screen with the spinning circle on my laptop. 🤷♀️
Is anyone having trouble viewing nest? I am unable to see on my ipad and iPhone, even after clearing my history and website data.
I take it back – it is working now.
Awesome pics Cole..thanx for sharing.
I live over on ‘Great Pond’, an Estuary about 3 north of Waquoit. We have at least 3 active Osprey nests on the Bay, one of which is just 100 feet from my home. I thought I’d share with you some fantastic pictures taken last week on Great Pond that appeared in the Boston Herald; enjoy!
https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/08/07/birds-of-prey-grab-breakfast/
I walked Great Bay Road last night with my dog. There were about 7 or 8 osprey hovering above the water. One flew away with a fish. It was cool to see them out fishing as a family!
🐟
Good, but also sad to see the last juvenile that has been hanging around the nest so much is finally spending more time away. Hopefully its working on its fishing skills and getting stronger for the long migration coming up.
No worries Barry, thinking Echo is the one last in nest will be fine. Yesterday & today more time away…being fed each day so just a matter of extra time. Last night & tonight both juveniles sleeping in next. Also last year Glenn mentioned that sometimes the youngest chick stays on the nest to guard it. Last year it was Charlie who would not leave nest. Rachel & Carson did not attend to him as much as this chick, perhaps busy with Alpha & Bravo. Somehow someway Charlie did finally find his wings & went fishing.
If you followed last year you know how difficult is was to watch poor Charlie struggle right from the get go…
It is extremely common for the youngest to remain on the nest for prolonged amounts of time. I know of a few different where this is going on right now and I have observed it in the past. I do have a twist for you though, I think the second osprey sleeping on the nest (and the same of a couple nights gone by) is the female mother.
Rachel? Looking again I do believe you’re right.
I had the luxury of seeing her arrive in the daylight. It’s harder to determine with the night vision camera. Someone thought it was two juveniles on the nest a night or two ago, but no it is the female.
a few different nests…..
Charlie lands on nest with fish…go to last season highlights posted 09/11/2022 to see video of what determination will do, pure survival!
Dogfish are delicious to humans too….and the daily scup…lol Was interesting to see a little variety in the catch.
Half a fish delivery 1:05 pm. Friday 8/11.
Go fishing 🎣
great action shot!❤️
Morning, have you ever heard of the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare)? I found out about them last year when we found a stranded baby pup seal on Shoestring Bay and the Cotuit Post Office recommended them! You can check out their website (https://www.ifaw.org/). There is a local number to call in Yarmouth. They are very helpful and were on the scene in less that 2 hours when we contacted them.
Curious, so when you contacted wildlife rescue what happened
Good to hear they are now aware of injury …do you think they’ll update you once she speaks with her supervisor. Need that leg to catch fish.
Hoping & 🙏 something can be done
Happy you noticed injury & reported it…it’s a beginning