About The Bird House

LIZ

I love being able to use my degree in Wildlife Conservation to promote the backyard birding hobby and help customers make their yards their own personal nature sanctuary. When away from the Bird House I enjoy birding, gardening, cooking, and enjoying the outdoors with my dogs Axel and Beavis.

PATTI

“My interest in nature and birds is inspired by my backyard bird feeder.”

The American Kestrel, aka Sparrow Hawk, is beautiful, fast and a little predator. One of my favorites!

My favorite hobbies are gardening dahlias, fishing (catch and release), playing with my three rabbits, and going to Disney World!”

TRISH

Trish is a teacher’s assistant and also volunteers her time at Tinker Nature Park. As an avid backyard birder, Trish is great at answering any of your birding questions! When not at the Bird House, she loves keeping in touch with her six grandchildren.

DON

I developed my love for birds as a customer of The Bird House for over twenty years. I love helping people! With my many years of knowledge and experience with birds and nature, I am able to solve problems and make sure you find just the right item you’re looking for.

I also share my love for nature as a Docent at the Seneca Park Zoo. My favorite bird is the Black Capped Chickadee because it can be seen year round and he enjoys its song.

When not at The Bird House or the Zoo, one of my passions for the past 35 years is playing competitive softball across the country. I also enjoy spending time with my lovely wife, beautiful daughter, and Westie, Luna.

KIM

My grandfather gave me bird books as a little girl and he had a mulberry tree outside a huge picture window at our cottage where we would bird watch. Cedar waxwings and cardinals would be the frequent visitors. I have fed the birds for as long as I can remember. My dad was an outdoors man and growing up I spent a lot of time with him in the woods watching the birds and animals.

I love spending time with my cows, bunnies, and my Lab Daisy. I enjoy gardening, photography, and watching birds in my yard.

My favorite birds are wrens! House wrens and Carolina wrens! I love their songs and watching them in the yard along with goldfinches, chickadees, red breasted nuthatches, and catbirds. The thing I love most about birds is their songs and calls, they are amazing.

LAURA

As a child, I always brought home frogs, baby birds, snakes, salamanders, etc. to take care of and raise. I have always loved dogs, cats, and horses (all creatures, really). I learned about nature and animals through camping, hiking, nature photography, travel, adventure clubs, scuba diving, and studying marine sciences and plants in college. Naturally watching birds and learning about their behaviors has evolved my interests in nature, eco-friendly native gardening, and world environmental issues. It is a lifelong passion!

I love cardinals, their beautiful color, song, and behavior fascinate me. I love how the male comes to the feeder and feeds his mate and offspring. It is so endearing and beautiful to watch.

EMILY

Growing up I was always running barefoot outside hoping my mother would forget to call me inside for dinner.

I am currently a student studying athletic training at West Virginia University. I love the West Virginia scenery but for school breaks nothing beats coming home to Rochester.

I love listening to music on my record player, playing with my dogs, watching nature documentaries, and growing my indoor plant collection.

My favorite bird is an ostrich because it is a beautiful bird with character. It is the largest bird in the world and has three stomachs!

QUINN

Since I can ever remember, animals and the outdoors drew me in more than any truck or action figure could ever. I lunged at any opportunity to play outside, discover different kinds of life, and buy hoards of various field guides.

Although birds used to put me a little on edge when I was much younger, my fondness for them has dramatically grown since immersing myself in more nature. My favorite birds have for a long time have been seagulls and pigeons. They’re not only pretty unique in their simple, yet defined look, but their creative behavior among humans and food has always been a consistent source of entertainment for me. Hilarious stuff.

Recently starting my job at the Bird House has been enlightening and I couldn’t imagine a better place to work with the incredible staff that diligently work here every day. I’m excited to gain more and more experience here and I look forward to mixing more seed!

LESLIE

Although I’ve been growing indoor cacti since high school, I didnt’ become a true nature – bird appreciator until I became a big-time gardener 24 years ago. It took being surrounded by my gardens for me to recognize the wonder of birds and nature!

I would have to say that the nuthatch is my favorite bird. He turns mealtime into something different by eating upside down – totally a bird after my own heart!

My favorite hobbies are wine tasting, gardening, photography, flea market/estate sale perusing, pottery, and bird watching.

ALI

My first word was “bird” – like Bambi! I have always loved birds and critters. If I could figure out a way to channel Disney Princess magic and have them constantly circling around me – while helping with chores – that would be ideal.  In the meantime, I’m content watching the antics of the blue jays, squirrels, crows, chickadees etc. at my feeders in the city of Rochester. 

When I’m not at The Bird House, I’m most likely cross-stitching, tending to a plant, or being bossed around by my Chihuahua. I also enjoy singing, reading, baking and watching Star Trek with my hubs.

RACHEL

“I’ve always loved being outside, and I figured studying environmental science at RIT was a good fit. I have more knowledge about ecosystems but working here is really helping me learn about birds.

My favorite birds are crows. I think they’re really pretty and I’m amazed by how smart they are and by their sense of community.

My favorite hobbies include baking & cooking, playing guitar, and hanging out with my cats.”

STEVE

I am a native of Pittsford and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Syracuse University who subsequently went off to Minnesota for twenty-five years, during which I worked as a map-maker, a people manager, and a web and software techie, mostly in fast-moving, very creative start-up environments. Now in pseudo-retirement, I enjoy birding and the outdoors. As an owner of half a dozen different bird feeders myself, I’m busy learning all I can (and always will be), so that you can rely on me to do my best to understand your bird-related needs and then help you find what you’re after, here at The Bird House!

JIM R.

My passion for birding began after an Achilles tear severely curtailing my physical activities. I had read about the Braddock Bay Hawk Watch in a newspaper article and looking for a sedentary activity, decided to check it out. Shortly after arriving I was amazed to see a Bald Eagle, Tundra Swans, and hundreds of migrating hawks. I was at once “hooked”. My birding interests gradually expanded, and I especially enjoy watching and listening to owls, warblers, and waterfowl.

My other interests include sports, reading, frequenting area parks, and refuges with my wife Carole, and enjoying our two cats.

PAULA

The natural world is a wonder to me and birds are one special part of it. I always kept birdhouses and feeders outside my classroom windows during my long career as an elementary school teacher.

One of my great joys was instilling a love of bird watching to my students. Any lesson could be interrupted for an exciting bird sighting!

KRISTY

Even though I grew up in the woods, I didn’t develop a strong interest in birds until I moved to Rochester, where parks provided regular encounters with new species that sparked my curiosity. Now I garden with native ecosystems in mind, and I take great joy as new visitors find my little urban garden.

I also love baking, knitting, and music, especially Classical and early music.

ANGIE

Angie has had a camera of some sort in hand since 5th grade. When she aquired her first “grown up” camera (Nikon DSLR) Birds became her favorite subject to shoot. The Great Blue Heron is her Spark bird, the bird that caught her eye and attention and curiosity and she finds Long-tailed Ducks ridiculously adorable, but the Turkey Vulture is by far her favorite bird. They get a bad rep, but they are communal creatures, evolutionary marvels who are crucial to the environment and positively awe-inspring to watch in flight.

During 2020, like pretty much everyone in WNY, Angie put up a couple of bird feeders to maintain her sanity while Birding Trips with the Rochester Birding Association were on pause. It helped that a friend she’d known for a whole lotta years (Patti!) worked at The Bird House, so she learned a lot and bought a LOT of bird-stuff. She spent enough time (and money) at the Bird House that it was inevitable that she got a job here!

Besides nature photography, Angie enjoys fiber arts (knitting, crochet, embroidery, sewing), choral singing, watching movies (mostly sci-fi, superhero, fantasy, and horror), and catering to the whims of her Feline Overlord, BK Jones aka Jonesy! 

STEPHANY

As a long-time customer of The Bird House before joining the team, my love of backyard birding sprang from the inspiration I gleaned while shopping here! There are SO MANY specialized feeders and foods, and Liz’s weekly broadcasts only served to get me more excited about attracting wildlife to my yard! In fact, I’ve been known to have as many as 16 bird and squirrel feeders up at one time! While I enjoy a large variety, I get most excited by the occasional piliated woodpecker at my large paddle-tail suet feeder.

JIM C.

I am new to The Bird House, but I am not new to birding. I have enjoyed this wonderful pastime for
more than forty years. I love feeding the birds in my backyard, but I especially love getting out and
watching birds in their homes. My favorite is spending time with my wife in our kayaks on Irondequoit Bay. You never know what will show up! Eagles, Herons, Ospreys, Egrets, Kingfishers, Terns, and a multitude of waterfowl. What fun!

ORION

In late January 2022, The Bird House was thrilled to welcome Orion, our fabulous new furry employee! Although his official job title is Security Specialist, he prefers his unofficial job as Greeter! A stray who had resided at Lollipop Farm for only four days when he adopted us, 4+ years old Orion is a people cat and has already adapted to his new home. Come in say “hi,” pet him, hear him trill and maybe he’ll even do a “wheelie” for you!

STAR

In late August 2021 we lost our beloved Star, our long-time store cat. He was adopted from Lollypop Farm to fill the role of mouser extraordinaire for about 14 years. He will be sorely missed.