Osprey Cam, Coming Soon to a Screen Near You from Felix Neck

Must-See TV

While Ospreys were winging their way north, staff at the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary have been repairing and updating the bird’s nesting platform. 

Thanks to funding from the Couch Family Foundation and a lift from Island Timber, a camera has been installed that provides a birds-eye view (and surround sound) of these bird’s seasonal antics. It will be hard not to binge watch as these birds mate, lay eggs, and raise their young in real time. 

Watch the Live Feed

Island Success Story

It was back in the early 1960s when Mass Audubon Felix Neck’s first Sanctuary Director, Gus Ben David, began to think about the scarcity of breeding Ospreys on Martha’s Vineyard. This species suffered from the effect of the chemical DDT which thinned their eggshells and reduced their nesting success and overall population. After the banning of DDT in the United States, Osprey populations rebounded, though their numbers remained low on Martha’s Vineyard. 

At that time, Ospreys began to nest on the Island on utility poles and trees, but those locales could be dangerous to the birds due to live wires or trees that couldn’t hold the weight of those large nests. When the nesting platform program began, there were only two nesting pairs of ospreys. Today, more than 100 pairs successfully breed every year on the Island.

Migration Miracle

Ospreys are seasonal residents, arriving on the Island in late March and early April and leaving in August. Their routes vary, some go fast, some go slow, no matter, the successful ones will reach their winter homes in Central and South America. Researchers have tagged Island birds, and their studies give insight into these birds’ travels and trials. The arrival of the first Island Osprey in the spring is cause for celebration and now a watch party.