Susan Haynes Is Teaching Culpeper to Notice the Birds
By Culpeper HQ ·
Susan Haynes can help you outwit a squirrel, teach a class about nesting birds and tell you where she saw her first Pileated Woodpecker. What she cannot do, despite considerable effort, is persuade a Pileated Woodpecker to visit her own feeders. She has them around her house, and when one calls or appears in the yard, she stops dead in her tracks. For somebody who calls herself a “complete bird nerd,” there are apparently still negotiations left to conduct.
Susan and her husband, Bob Haynes, own Wild Birds Unlimited Culpeper, which opened in July 2022. Teaching has become a regular part of the family business, from free monthly talks to summer programs for children. A homeschool class Susan started three years ago has grown from three students to 21 at a recent session, she says. The former homeschooling mother is still teaching, only now her students include people deciding what to put in a backyard feeder.
<!-- continue-from-newsletter -->
Some people come for the birds without coming through the door. Susan says a woman told Bob that she spends her lunch break in the store parking lot because her apartment complex does not allow her to feed birds. She sits in her car watching the store's feeders before returning to work. “It warms my heart that I can do that even for one customer,” Susan wrote.
## A Joke That Became a Store
Before the store, Susan was a homeschooling mother of four with a degree in Special Education. Her last two children were nearing graduation during the pandemic, leaving her with a decision: return to work in schools or try something completely different. Bob worked, and still works, at Battlefield Farms in Rapidan.
Birds were not exactly a new subject. Susan's parents were avid bird feeders, so watching them was part of childhood. She remembers standing on her sliding board, flapping her arms and wishing she could fly high enough to see the world from a bird's perspective. Gravity had other plans. “I would flap my arms really hard but only landed on the ground,” she recalled.
During the pandemic, normal homeschool activities were disrupted and the family, in Susan's words, was “going stir crazy.” They began ordering birdseed from a friend who owns three stores in the Virginia Beach area. Susan loved the seed blends, and bird feeding became a substantial part of that final homeschool year.
When social distancing began easing, the Haynes family visited those friends in Virginia Beach. Over dinner, Susan jokingly suggested her friend open a store in Culpeper and let Susan run it. Her friend laughed and suggested Susan open her own instead. “I never imagined that I could do that, but it was a challenge that I was willing to accept,” Susan said.
Research brought another discovery: the organization encouraged in-store talks and teaching about birds. “It was like a fire was lit in me,” Susan said. Today, her youngest two children work at the store, and customers may sometimes find their daughter-in-law working there, too.
## A Classroom With Wings
Susan says the free monthly talks have drawn anywhere from two people to 40. Summer brings Vacation Bird School, with topics including nesting, identification and feeding. The store has also offered lessons at local schools, helped children make pinecone bird feeders at Culpeper Farm Tour events, and participated in summer STEAM events in Fauquier.
Not every lesson involves a backyard visitor. Susan says the nonprofit Earthquest has brought birds of prey to the store, including hawks, owls, falcons and vultures. On a few visits, it has brought an Andean condor. She loves seeing guests encounter the birds up close. “If there is someone willing to learn, we are willing to teach them,” she said.
## The Squirrel Question
That willingness can begin with one of backyard birding's oldest diplomatic problems: squirrels. Susan says new customers commonly ask whether they can feed birds without feeding the local squirrel population, too. Her answer is yes, followed by a bit of arithmetic.
She teaches the 5-7-9 rule: squirrels can jump five feet straight up, seven feet from a vertical surface and nine feet from an elevated surface. She recommends a feeder pole placed 10 feet from a jumping surface and fitted with a baffle. Where trees make that setup impractical, the store sells seed with hot pepper baked onto it. Susan explains that squirrels can taste the heat while birds cannot detect it as mammals do.
## The People Around the Feeders
The technical questions are only part of what comes through the door. Susan says customers have become an extended family. The Hayneses celebrate when somebody finally spots a long-awaited bird at a feeder, and Susan says they cry with customers who lose loved ones. She also hears from customers who say listening to birds helps with stress and their emotional well-being.
The family lives on the Orange County side of Rapidan, with Culpeper the closest town. Owning the store has introduced Susan to customers, employees and Chamber of Commerce members she might otherwise never have known. “We all become so connected and close that I know we are a true village in Culpeper,” she said.
## Away From the Store
At home, Susan admits she is “not a huge gardener.” Two years ago, she put her first milkweed plants in pots on her back porch. This year, she says, they flowered and attracted numerous Monarch caterpillars. The plants are bare now, but she hopes she helped. “I figured that I had better practice what I preach and I had to start somewhere.”
Her favorite local birding spot is Yowell Meadow Park. She describes a walk that can include robins in the fields, a blue heron at the water's edge, yellow-rumped warblers in the vegetation and a red-shouldered hawk raising young nearby. It was there, during a bird walk, that she saw her first Pileated Woodpecker, a moment she calls a highlight of her years of birding.
Birds are not her only enthusiasm. Family-and-friends game nights involve a potluck dinner and games such as Exploding Kittens, Settlers of Catan or Spoons. Susan says they get competitive. A rare completely free day has a different itinerary: Mountain Run Winery, Culpeper Love wine, binoculars and AP Project playing music.
## An Invitation Still Open
Over the next five years, Susan would like the store to become an educational hub for the community. She says the staff, whom she describes as Certified Bird Feeding Experts, spend considerable time studying birds and their habits so they can share what they learn.
Our attention turned here when the heart of this story came through in our conversation with Susan and Bob Haynes[1]; that offered a helpful first look at what was happening close to home.
Susan once stood on a sliding board wishing she could follow the birds into the sky. These days she is helping people notice them from the ground. As for a Pileated Woodpecker at her own feeders, the invitation remains open.