Bird feeding a peaceful, rewarding hobby

[Donna]

Painting contractor Anthony Gross works a tough job. Sometimes he's wheeling a 200-mile round-trip commute to work.

His guaranteed relaxation?

Like millions of Americans, he's become a bird feeder, which in his case also means he gives handouts to deer and black bears, because he lives in the woods in Milford, Pa.

"I go through maybe 50 pounds of birdseed every week and maybe 100 pounds of cracked corn."

Yup. It's become serious.

"He's up at the crack of dawn every day to put out the feeders," says wife Patti DiMeo. "As soon as the sun starts coming up, he's out there on his ladder, and yes, in the dead of winter he puts on his one-piece insulated jumpsuit and goes to it."

Wearing a paint-stained T-shirt, he stands under a tree festooned with bird feeders. He holds out a hand filled with birdseed to lure tufted titmice.

"This is a peaceful and relaxing thing," says Gross. But he's not the only one up his tree.

"There was a black bear that climbed the tree, and it braced one foot against the tree so it could reach out and get the feeder and lick the seeds," says Gross, with affection and admiration for the furry intruder. This is a put-it-out-and-they-will-come backyard.

He's got pileated and redheaded woodpeckers, along with the regular feeder crowd, including upside-down, tree-trunk-walking white-breasted nuthatches, chickadees and smaller woodpeckers.

"I've got no other hobbies," says Gross. Well, he and Patti are big New York Giants and Yankees fans, but nothing compares to the gentle fun of feeding birds.

He grew up in the Bronx and then Yonkers. Birds didn't become the passion they are now, but he did get a taste early in life, he says.

"When I was little and the Bronx River was full of (oil and other pollution), my grandmother would take me there and we'd rescue birds. She'd put lighter fluid on them to clean them up and let them go."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says some 52 million people in the United States spend $2.5 billion a year on birdseed.

Gross buys black oil sunflower seed. Goldfinches love thistle seed. Woodpeckers and many others go crazy for suet. Black oil sunflower seeds are top-of-the-line for most birds, although larger birds seem to also like mixed seeds and striped black sunflower seeds. Mourning doves appreciate cracked corn. What's best for your birds? It's best to ask your feed supplier.

Jerry Glass, who owns the Red Barn Discount Pet Store in Middletown, has seen all kinds of bird-feeding people. (He's one, too.)