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Welcome to “Season Four” of our osprey cam! Carson arrived on March 20th, 2025. 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 2025 (“Season Four”)
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.
Looks like Carson keeps looking into the trees before he move a stick. Must be asking Rachel “.honey, where do you want me to put this stick? Over here or over there ??”
👏
carson has been nest building. rachel still sleeping somewhere?
Here
thats they way it was made with spaces
Thank you, Tony!
Looks like piece of wood is missing under nest?
Praying for a peaceful night.
Ditto!
Yummy! Late afternoon fish-snack 🐟
I just posted some of last night’s interaction between owl and Carson.
https://www.friendsofmashpeenationalwildliferefuge.org/osprey-nest-cam-highlights-season-four-2025/
I’m so thankful for all your posts. I love being able to go back and see what I missed!
New building materials inbound and placed in the nest at 7:06am so the owl/osprey ownership dispute will continue for another day.
Thank you Kevin & Lorene for early postings! Let the nest reconstruction begin!!!
There is a longer comment from KevinG but it is waiting approval. Look for owl osprey interaction at 03:52:57. This is from KevinG
WOW! Kevin, thank you for this. I can’t believe the screeching sound coming from Carson. He surely woke up the neighborhood. I am surprised not to see Rachel involved but I’m sure she was awake in a close by tree monitoring the situation!
I have noticed lately that both Rachel and Carson seem to know there is something awry with the nest and maybe that’s why there has not been much nest building.
This is the Kevin now calling himself KevinG. Owl arrived from the right of the nest at 03:52:57 with a large something in its talons. It was there until just before the arrival of an osprey from the rear of the nest at 03:58:54. This was almost simultaneous. The owl appeared to be in a hurry while the osprey just landed on the nest edge. It was still there at 05:20.
great catch!!! Hope that Glenn will post it .
Went back through the feed the owl comes in at just after 3:52 with a rodent so if anyone is interested to watch the sequence kinda fascinating. The osprey’s start yapping at the owl around 3:55. Prior to the owl coming back you can totally hear the rustling on top of the camera as Kevin pointed out! Wonder who? Owl leaves with rodent and leaves the nest to osprey who is still on the nest now at 5:20 am. Sorry for blurry screen shot the owl comes in so fast and smooth! Beautiful creatures all!
Thank you too!
WOW!!! Thanx so much for this. my first look at the owl. I hope 🤞 he leaves the nest to Rachel and Carson
Osprey looked much larger in comparison maybe this will get sorted out after all 🤞
At 3:57 AM owl on the nest hooting up a storm and looking all around and then up and you can also hear osprey in the background. Then (it looks) like Rachel flies in and the owl leaves and the osprey is still on the nest at 4:34am. Will post screenshots
The wing
This is not Kevin talking to himself. It’s bad enough we can’t distinguish the osprey but now there are two Kevins .My name autofils but I will try and change it to KevinG. I’ve posted before generally about the owl. So whose or whoooos wing is it .At least twice recently I’ve seen an osprey fly from the nest directly towards the camera and the camera shakes. I’ve also seen the rodent emerge from the center of the nest and run around. I don’t know if the osprey care for rodent but I know the owl does and I’d be inclined to believe the bird on the camera is an osprey as an owl wouldn’t have given the rodent a second chance. I recall a few similar wing shows last year when it was just osprey in the story. Maybe a camera to watch the camera?
😂👍
Great shot Kevin! I wonder now if that could be the ospreys wing feathers? It looks kinda like the wing in the picture of (Rachel?) landing on the nest in picture from 3:58 this am?
So I think I know what may be contributing to the owl dilemma. I had the screen of my iPad open with the sound up and suddenly heard noise close to the camera, and then looked to see long wing feathers come down into the camera view. So I Used the rewind feature and saw that a small rodent with eyes shining bright came up out of the hole in the center of the nest, and then in an instant scurried over the far side. The owl was obviously perched on the camera and waiting to pounce. If the rodents have a nest beneath the platform it’s keeping them focused for a meal. I’m sure the Osprey if in trees nearby, can see the owl and it’s keeping them from resuming their occupancy. Listening for over 10 minutes I could occasionally hear noise right next to the camera coming from the owl, shuffling on its perch.
Listening for over 10 minutes I could occasionally hear noise right next to the camera coming from the owl, shuffling on its perch.
Screenshots attached
I could be wrong, but it looks like Carson waiting for Rachel. Nest definitely in need of repair, but maybe he and she are waiting for a peaceful night sans owl. Hope so. Routing for our beloved couple. Approximately 7:10 pm.
No, think I am incorrect. Rachel waiting for her home improvement specialist. Hope this works out for these two.
Carson working on nest repairs. He keeps falling through the hole in the center. Better fix that pronto!!
I was reading up on owls vs osprey. It horrible, are little family might not be safe.
The Ospreys should be applauded for not nesting here with the huge threat of Apex predator
Owls here.
We would not be happy watching what could ensue.
The Osprey never wins.
We haven’t noticed any Osprey on the Chimney yet.
Okay Thanks!
Don’t forget the nest platform blew off last year and on 4/2/24 they got a new one and then they really got the nest together fast!
I looked back on 2024 and there was a rather benign instance ( 9/5/24) when the/an owl came to the nest at night while Juliet was there alone. The owl decided to leave and not confront or attack, but they may feel more ownership this year as they have been using the nest regularly all winter it appears 🤷♀️😵💫.
Glenn, have the chimney ospreys returned?
I’m not sure about the chimney nest. I’ll ask someone at WBNERR if there’s been activity.
Thanks!
I’m wondering if the osprey can detect the presence of the owl on the nest when they aren’t there during the night. For this time of year there is very little activity in the nest compared to past years. It saddens me to think they won’t risk nesting this season because of the owls.
I agree that I am saddened that the owls are discouraging Carson and Rachel from setting up their summer home again. On the other hand, it’s frightening to think that the owls could return and harm young osprey chicks. I read that the owls do not like making their own nests and would rather take ownership of another nest that has been well established, often taking over a hawk’s nest or crow’s nest. Maybe Carson’s nest will require too much work to interest an owl. There’s clearly a hole in the bottom and it will require a lot of work to support eggs and a young family. Let’s just hope the owls move onto another location and let Carson and Rachel get to work.
I just looked at some dates from last year to compare activity in the nest. The nest building by Rachel didn’t begin until about March 28, and the battles over the nest between Carson and the male who arrived before him occurred on March 29th & 30th. So, while I can’t answer the question of whether the presence of the owl at night will impact nesting, they’re not behind schedule yet. I would expect we’ll see more activity over the next week. Once started, the nest was built up fairly quickly over just a few days.
Thank you for these dates from last year. They help to alleviate some of the angst caused by the intruder.
Reassuring for sure to know there’s still time to build up the nest appropriately. Owls please go away!!!!
Looks like Carson is starting to do some clean up work on the nest. But, didn’t stay long, only about 10 minutes.
5:01 owl
arrived at 04:42. just hooting. gone right after you saw it
The nest is such a mess. I wonder if they are ensuring ownership before starting to work on much-needed repairs.
i think we have our couple🙏🤞
Yes we do! That is Carson 🙂
carson-is that you?
I think the “real” Carson has arrived. There were some brief territorial skirmishes this morning at 6:40 and 7:12, then I just observed him again in the nest taking a defensive posture. I could be wrong about which is which, but there are definitely 3 ospreys alternating in the nest. As to the owls, well, it will be interesting to see how that plays out, but I don’t think there was any activity seen of them last night. Maybe they are getting the message that the nest is occupied, and their winter tenancy has run out. A battle between osprey and owl would not be pretty. Fingers crossed that all of this resolves soon and with the least conflict.
3/25/25 03:51 rodent in the nest – no owl. seems like a dangerous place to be hanging out. Otherwise, clear nest until 05:52
I agree with comments about lack of attention on the nest and also wonder if Carson hasn’t really returned yet. I try to compare the markings of Carson from past seasons to the other osprey that have been seen so far this year. That hole in the center of the nest worries me as well. Although I did see one of the osprey bringing soft material several days ago. It certainly wasn’t much however.
I’m curious if this has anything to do with the owls that have been there in the evenings that visit all night?
I thought that too so I did a Google AI search about osprey sense of smell and it said that “ospreys, like most raptors, have poorly developed sense of smell and rely heavily on their eyesight and hearing . . .”.
Yes Kim. Im sure the Osprey roost in the trees near the nest and see the Owls there at night, and makes for insecurity….and they should go elsewhere. before they become an evening Owl repast .
I recall that Carson was late last year and had to battle the other male off the nest. Yes Sandy and Kim, I had wondered too if the owls were making them reconsider this as a safe location. It would be a terrible thing to watch that so let’s hope it sorts itself out. Also does anyone know if the Ospreys that nest on the chimney have come back?
so i’m questioning my initial i.d. of carson returning on 3/20. i’m pretty sure that this is rachel who has been sitting on the nest, but the fact that there isn’t more mating or nest building is confusing.
I did see 2 matings but do wonder about who’s who. I have seen a lot of “waiting and looking around” and as you mentioned not enough nest building. Looks like there is quite the hole in the middle of the nest that needs desperate repair and no one seems to be focusing on that.
something is off-is it possible that carson still hasn’t arrived?
So looking forward to this new season. Welcome back Rachel & Carson.