LANCASTER MAN DEVELOPS INNOVATIVE BIRD FEEDERS
978-807-0547
Standing over a hand saw in his basement workshop, Mike Lawe leans on a piece of wood as he makes a cut following the metal template screwed into the top of the wood.
Right now, it doesn’t look like much of anything, but the finished product of his labors will be a bird feeder that will give people the chance to get up close and personal with their guests.
Lawe, 60, made a bird feeder for his mother a few years ago, and then formed a small company, NorEasterTough Window Bird Feeders, with his new patent pending design—a window bird feeder with a double-paned glass that can be filled from the inside.
The units are totally weather-proof. The outside of the feeder is treated with three layers of polyurethane.
The glass is sealed tight, and the units cinch tight into the window against a small layer of insulation.
The seed is added from the inside of the house through holes drilled in the top piece of the unit. That keeps bird lovers from having to run outside during the winter to fill the feeder.
The feeder mounts into the window like an air conditioner, and bump out into the house, which is where the birds come to feed.
“They are almost like an inverted bay window,” says Pam Ferguson.
Ferguson’s son Bobby, 29, suffers from a crippling disease that attacks his joints and has left him bedridden for the past five years.
About three months ago, Ferguson was given a NorEasterTough feeder by a neighbor. Since then, it has brought her son nothing but joy.
“Five year is a long, long time to try to get creative with things for him,” Ferguson said, but now her son has one more option. She and her son now watch the birds that come in to feed and do research on them.
Ferguson started talking about the feeder where she works at Sunrise Assisted Living in Leominster. Soon enough, they bought one for the reminiscence unit, which houses people with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“The residents just love it because it’s right in the room with you,” Ferguson said. “It’s as if the birds are inside.”
The feeder gives people at the home another option, which is a lot harder for someone who is suffering with Alzheimer’s and dementia or people who are severely disabled like her son, Ferguson said.
One of the best parts of the design is the glass section of the feeders which have a mirror film that allows people to get as close as they want to the feeder without the birds seeing them.
Sometimes you even see birds pecking at their reflection or puffing themselves up to scare off their reflection, which they mistake for competition, Ferguson said.
This is great for the people at her work, because they can pull up a chair as close as they want. And at home, her son likes to just relax and watch the birds come into his window.
When Lawe saw the amount of joy that his product brought to Bobby Ferguson, he saw a purpose deeper than just making a few bucks on the side. “My goal is to reach people who are confined,” he said.
Lawe, who has been selling the units out of his driveway, is hoping to connect with some people in charities and foundations that will be able to get his product into the bedroom windows of people who are suffering from illness or disabilities that keep them inside.