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Cape Ann Current: Keeping Cape Ann current

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Harbor and Environment

More ospreys than ever north of Boston, and Gloucester's camera pair raised two more chicks

Greenbelt counted 103 nesting pairs this year, up from 92. Annie and Squam, the pair on the OspreyCam behind Lobsta Land, fledged Sunny and Stormy.

An osprey perches on the crossarm of a utility pole next to a large stick nest
An osprey beside its nest on a utility pole in Minnesota, 2018. This is not the Gloucester OspreyCam pair. File photo: Courtney Celley / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
GloucesterEssex

Cape Ann Current Staff · Friday, October 2How we work

Ospreys had another strong year north of Boston, and the best known pair on Cape Ann did its part.

Essex County Greenbelt, the land trust based in Essex, documented 103 breeding pairs of ospreys in the region this year, up from 92 in 2025. Those pairs produced 127 young birds that left the nest, compared with 112 last year. Greenbelt said it was the ninth straight year of growth.

Much of the counting is done by volunteers. More than 40 trained community scientists watched nests this season and filed more than 2,300 reports online, according to Greenbelt.

Annie and Squam

On Greenbelt's OspreyCam, set up in 2018 on a nest in the salt marsh behind Lobsta Land Restaurant in Gloucester, the resident pair, Annie and Squam, raised two chicks this summer. Their names are Sunny and Stormy.

The camera is online at ecga.org, and Greenbelt's osprey program takes reports of nests and sightings from the public.

Sources

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