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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.
Glenn, the above weather App states 78 degrees.
I live very close to this nest, and the Weather channel says it is 69.?
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=41.5787&lon=-70.4668#.YpDpDi8pAgo
Seems correct now….
I just noticed there is 1 more egg that has not hatched. The other 3 seem to be thriving
5-27,7am 3 chicks, one egg and the two oldest chicks on being fed nothing for the youngest
Is there a flying squirrel or some critter at the bottom of the nest directly below Rachel? 5:23
the pole is wood they are probably climbing up the pole
The critter that has been seen several times at night seems to be a flying squirrel. As one viewer pointed out, this is the only species of squirrel that are nocturnal and active at night. Also, the wood pole has an aluminum sleeve in one section that should prevent animals from climbing. There are other tall trees near the pole that a critter could jump from. Other viewers noted something moving at the bottom of the nest in the past day or two. After looking at recordings, I think this seems to be just a leaf or other material blowing in the wind. The squirrel is more worrisome but I expect Rachel and Carson are keeping an eye out for intruders.
4:05 AM glanced at the stream and spotted the flying squirrel on the right side of the nest, through the brush. The big, glowing eye gives it away. I always found them adorable at my birdfeeder at night, but if they do have carnivorous tendencies, they better not try to hurt the babies.
What is the little creature appearing in the lower left opening of the nest? Definitely can see a pair of eyes. Fascinating.
I’m upset That they were just feeding the two in the front and not the smaller one in the back. Maybe that one was just hatched and doesn’t need to be fed yet? I’m concerned they might not feed it and it’ll just wither.
I did see Rachel feed the little one a couple of times.
Yes i see it too Karen.
Hope it isnt going to do something nefarious.
Straight under Mom at the bottom of nest, looks like something is trying to pull away a piece of the nest. 7:10pm
The chick in the egg is fed by the yolk. Before hatching the remaining yolk is tucked inside the chick to feed it for the first few days outside the shell and give it strength to reach for food. Parents will feed the first hatched more as it has less yolk remaining.
I was just thinking that but I didn’t know when that one pipped. I’m relieved you think that too and that that one was More recent. I guess they’ll feed it tomorrow. ❤️
6:24pm all three look okay 😊
4:50 pm And now there are 3! But only two are being fed.
Three beautiful chicks and two attentive parents. Amazing…
At about 4:30 pm on 05/26/22 papa brought a fish but mama only fed 2 of the chicks. Is she shunning the 3rd leaving it to die? 🙁 Anyone know the answer?
The newborn 3rd chick probably doesn’t need much food right away. The other 2 are a few days older and eating more. We should give it a day or two before we get concerned.
How adorable! 3 chicks!
Wish humans gave birth this way. Soooooo much easier!
Do I see number 3 in the nest at 4:01 PM 5/26/22
another baby just arrived!!!
2 of the eggs have not yet hatched. Should we be concerned that maybe they are not going to?
No worries! The eggs were laid 1-2 days apart so they should hatch with the same timing.
Thur 12:35 lunch time! What a great mama, so attentive in the feeding. She alternates back n forth very, very evenly between the two, and when one has a piece of meat too big to swallow, she grabs the chunk back out of its beak and chops it up smaller and re-feeds it. Cool.
Lunch time!
nest is unattended. Rachel just left the nest. 8:05 an May 26. Carson not there.
18:52 dinner time for the babies!
Wow there eating!
6:55 pm Rachel feeding the 2 chicks and having some for herself as well. Great views of the chicks.
Thanks Beverly – that was a great one! I added a clip of it to the highlights.
So exacting. Now the fun begins. Yippee
Does anyone else think Rachel is favoring one chick over the other during feeding time?
Just now (11:20am) it looked like the chick on the left was getting more food than the chick on the right.
What a wonderful site. So calm and peaceful.
definitely 2 babies!!!!
5:39 AM – Carson brought in a fish that’s so fresh it’s still moving! Talk about fresh sushi!
Have the chicks been fed yet?
They are being feed now!
ah! we have babies! <3
Tech issues are resolved and chicks are being fed now!
Thank you!
Also was not accepting addition of images to posts.
Images seems to be working (for me at least). Unrelated to other issues. We’ve confirmed where the problem is and they’re working on it. Fingers crossed that it comes back soon!
Here’s Carson with the two chicks from a couple of hours ago:
They are so small and Carson looks very protective.
Our hosting provider, HDOnTap, is looking into the issue. Very unfortunate timing – we all want to see those cute baby chicks, and hope to have the livestream back up and running as soon as possible!
lots of spinning and freezing of the image for me as well. hasn’t been like this before.
Try removing weather link
Only seeing frozen image no live cam
Perhaps addition of weather link slowing it down?
Problems with the camera?
I’m not aware of any issues today and all seems fine to me. If you’re still experiencing difficulty, try refreshing or closing and re-opening your browser.
…actually, yes, there do seem to be some issues with periodic freezing. Looking into it…
Thank you
Maybe more viewers? Earlier today it gave me a “camera offline message” and most recently a-lot of spinning wheel buffering and frozen images.
Back enough just in time to see Carson bring lunch for the family for a short time before freezing again. Silk browser on a Firestick here. Similar freezing on my iPhone. First day it has happened in full month of viewing.
Thank you
I just saw two chicks being fed! Amazing!
Looks like Rachel is eating the eggshells.