Windsor couple houses screech owl in their backyard

A Windsor couple has been housing a screech owl in their backyard for more than a year.

A female owl moved in Nov. 2018 and has since mated and reproduced four owlets in the birdhouse that was built by homeowner Chris Jacobson.

"It's nice to see the cycle of life with them. They have a lot more challenges than we do," said Chris, adding that the species needs to quickly learn how to fend for itself.

Chris and his wife, Sandy Jacobson, first noticed screech owls in their backyard in 2017 after they witnessed some blue jays disturbing a family of them. Chris — who enjoys woodworking — decided to build a birdhouse for the owls, which took about a day to make. 

"Once it was up, a few weeks later, we heard a few noises in it and we thought we had an owl, but it turned out that there were raccoons that had moved in. ... Other than that, I didn't see any birds that were trying to use it. There were just squirrels trying to race up and build nests," he said.

It took several months before a female owl finally moved into the birdhouse and made a home for herself. She would hunt at night and return back to the house in the morning.

The couple spent the following year studying and documenting the owl using a telescope and an iPhone, while sharing their photos online.

But there was a short period in which the Jacobsons didn't see or hear from the screech owl and thought she disappeared. Unbeknownst to them, she had mated and given birth to four baby owls.

The couple caught the first sighting of the owlets in June and watched the parents teach their offspring how to hunt.

By July, the mother roosted outside and her children were expected to leave the birdhouse permanently and hunt for themselves, according to the couple. They said the owlets were lucky to fledge during fish fly season as there was plenty to eat.

Not a pet

Sandy said she nicknamed the mother Cindy Lou Who because her two-year-old granddaughter calls owls "Hoo-hoos."

"Chris is not so sure of having a nickname because it makes her a pet and she's not really a pet. She's actually a wild animal," she said.

Sandy said she found the experience interesting and would "highly recommend it" to others.

"I don't think that people actually realize how much nature is around them everyday ... especially with everything going on with climate change. It's nice to be able to preserve some habitats and keep some wildness for animals right here," she said.

"It's a pretty interesting experience. It made the year go by really quickly and made the winter go by quickly because everyday we were ... trying to see what was going on," Sandy said.

"We just have a telescope and an iPhone and to be able to get that kind of close up without interfering with nature was kind of what the goal was ... We're far enough away from them that we don't bother them at all. They can continue to just be owls but have a nice place to stay."

Although the owlets have moved away, the mother still nests comfortably in the birdhouse in the Jacobson's backyard.

Chris Jacobson says if the owl continues to stay, he can expect to see her go through the same cycle once again.