A Windsor retiree’s backyard owl project has reached another milestone, with the latest generation of eastern screech owls beginning to leave the nest. Tuesday morning, Chris Jacobson captured video of one young owl taking its first leap into the world -- while a sibling spent the morning peering out from the nest box doorway, seemingly working up the courage to follow. IN PICTURES: Baby Owls in backyard nest The footage was recorded using a network of cameras Jacobson has installed in and around an owl house in his Riverside backyard. The cameras capture activity both inside and outside the nest box. “It’s pretty touching to see exactly what they go through and how they raise their young,” Jacobson said. In early May, four owlets hatched inside the nest box. When all four eventually leave, they will bring the total number of owlets raised from Jacobson’s backyard owl house to 19 over the past eight years. “We don’t have to do anything,” he said. “We don’t feed them. We don’t disturb them.” Jacobson first installed the owl house in 2018, adding cameras the following year. “We missed a lot because we couldn’t see what’s going on in our house,” said Jacobson. “We saw the adult owls there a few times … But then about a month after that, we saw three heads poking out and they were the baby owls.” Jacobson regularly shares clips from the cameras online, where they have attracted a loyal following of wildlife enthusiasts from around the world. “I try to post in the morning and people get to see that first thing,” he said. “Hopefully they see it before all the other crazy news that’s going on in the world. It just seems to make their day.” He also builds and sells the owl houses to other nature lovers hoping to attract eastern screech owls of their own. An unexpected passion for a man who says he hadn’t even seen an owl before it all started. “It fills my days,” Jacobson said. “It gets me to interact with other people and it just makes you feel good.” While the owlets’ time in the nest is nearly over, Jacobson will continue watching as their parents guide them through their first weeks outside. And before long, he’ll be waiting to see if another female owl moves into the nest box. “Hopefully by fall, we’ll have another adult here and it’ll start all over again,” Jacobson said.
