Nest WarsIt started with our fig trees, a squirrel, and a camera.
We never set out to film birds. What you are about to read is exactly how it happened, in our own backyard in South Central Texas, told the way it deserves to be told.
Peaches, figs, and a very determined thief
Fig trees, peaches, figs, nets, zip ties, and one very determined thief.
In June 2025, squirrels were raiding our fruit trees, eating our peaches and figs. We covered the trees with large nets and secured the bottoms with zip ties, and they still got in. They had also moved into the framing beneath my son's treehouse, so I put up cameras around the yard, the treehouse, and the old live-oak nest, just to see what they were up to.
For months, the cameras showed exactly what we expected. Squirrels under the treehouse roof, on top of it, and sitting below eating our figs anyway.
The nest camera caught them too. For months the footage showed squirrels running right through the empty live-oak nest, long before anything with talons ever gave it a second look.
Three species wanted one nest
Owl. Hawk. Squirrel. The same nest, sometimes only hours apart.
About eight months later, everything changed. In February, a Great Horned Owl and a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks both set their sights on the same live-oak nest. And they were not the only ones interested.
On a single morning, February 28, our camera caught all three at that one nest within hours of each other.
By early March the battles were constant, back and forth again and again.
- March 7, 5:05 a.m. Two Red-shouldered Hawks on the nest. This was the day Naomi and Ezekiel laid their first egg.
- March 8, just after midnight. A Great Horned Owl sitting over the hawk's egg.
- March 10, 3:51 p.m. The hawks were back.
- March 11, 10:41 a.m. After repeated physical removals, the nest briefly sat empty, then the camera revealed two eggs, one hawk egg and one owl egg.
In all, we caught about half a dozen physical removals on film. Who sat the nest kept changing, but that never stopped the attacks, or the deliveries. Our cameras kept catching things we have not been able to find documented anywhere. Rare prey deliveries. Squirrels charging full grown owls. Moments between these birds we are still trying to understand.
The ones who pulled us in
Two owls, two hawks, and the nest they could not share.
We gave them names, because after hundreds of hours they stopped being strangers.
Esther
The mother owl. She took over the nest and incubated it all the way to the hatch, including a hawk's egg she hatched as her own.
Samson
The father owl and Esther's mate, back at the live-oak nest night after night.
Asher
One of Esther and Samson's owlets, peering back at the camera while branching in the tree.
Gideon
Esther and Samson's other owlet, out branching in a tree a few over from the nest.
Naomi & Ezekiel
The hawk pair who fought for the nest. Their egg became the one Esther incubated and hatched, a Red-shouldered Hawk in a Great Horned Owl's nest.
That season, Esther and Samson raised their owlets, Asher and Gideon. Along the way, Esther did something we had never seen anywhere: she incubated and hatched a Red-shouldered Hawk's egg, Seth, right there in the nest. There was also one egg, laid March 17, that never hatched.
The barn swallows we finally noticed
Five years on our porch, and I finally looked up.
I have always loved watching God's creatures. For five years, barn swallows have nested on our porch in the same spot. I never messed with their nest. I just let them be, even when they started divebombing us every time we walked outside after a hatch.
It took this whole nest story for me to really stop and appreciate them. Now their newest hatch feels like part of the same gift.
From protecting fruit trees to something much bigger
Two veterans, a paused business, and a whole new love of birds.
My wife and I are both military veterans. She retired from the military, and I spent my career in the medical field. In January 2026, in retirement, we started a small business together. Then these birds happened. We put the business on hold to pull this footage together and share this nesting story with everyone who loves birds the way we have come to.
We have always been animal lovers. Now those animals include birds, and owls most of all. What started as protecting a few fig trees became something we never saw coming.
In April, the nest began to hatch
Incredible deliveries. Heart-touching moments. Heartbreaking ones too.
There is so much in this footage, incredible deliveries, moments that touch the heart, and moments that break it. This photo is only a small glimpse. What happened after that egg opened is the reason we could not stop filming, and we are keeping it where it belongs, in the videos.
