Osprey Nest, Bitterroot Valley, Lolo Live Cam

This camera looks down into an osprey nest on a tall pole at a horse ranch in Lolo, in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. Beyond the bowl of sticks and a wooden T-shaped perch lie a red barn roof, pipe-fenced pens and a pasture where horses graze.

Lolo is a small town just south of Missoula, at the northern end of the Bitterroot Valley. Nearby, Lolo Creek meets the Bitterroot River, which flows north to the Clark Fork. Ospreys fish these rivers and build bulky stick nests on poles along the valley. They have nested at this ranch for many years, returning each spring to raise chicks over the summer.

The fixed camera sits just above the rim, so the woven sticks fill the lower half of the frame and the perch rises on the right. Behind the barn roof lie a gravel yard and green paddocks, with tall trees and a wooded hillside closing the view.