Bird is the word at this specialty shop
Opening a specialty shop in the small town of Almonte five years ago could have been deemed a bird-brained idea, but for Bob Volks and Louise Beckinsale, it was not a flight of fancy, Karen Turner writes.
For more than three decades, Bob Volks, 61, had dreamed of owning a store specializing in bird feeders, nesting boxes and quality seed to help attract all species of birds to backyards, both urban and rural.
He had even visualized how the store would look, complete with shelves made from live-edge wood and seed bins built out of reclaimed floor boards, and planned to stock as many Canadian-made products as he could.
Born in Toronto, but raised in rural Ontario, the outdoorsy real estate agent says, “It’s always been rocks, birds and trees for me.” So in 2011, when a 940-square-foot retail space became available in Heritage Court, off Almonte’s Mill Street, the couple took a giant leap of faith.
“It’s always been Bob’s dream to open a backyard birding store,” says Beckinsale, who has known Volks since they went to the same high school in Winchester, south of Ottawa.
The couple reconnected in 2006, two years after their spouses died. She was looking to sell her horse farm and contacted Volks for real estate advice. They started dating two years later.
Though they weren’t looking to start a business, the Almonte property was too good to resist. “Don’t stop to think about it or you will come up with a thousand reasons not to do it. Put the pedal to the metal,” urged Beckinsale.
But at a time when most folks their age start slowing down and planning their retirement, she admits jumping into the shaky retail industry was a risky move. You could even call it downright silly, she says. That’s why they named their business Gilligallou Bird, after the mythical gillygaloo bird from the Paul Bunyan folklore. The goofy creature was known for laying square eggs to keep them from rolling out of the nest and down the steep hill near the lumberjack’s home.
As children, both Volks and Beckinsale remember being called gillygaloo bird when they acted up or did something silly.
When Volks suggested naming the store Gilligallou Bird, it stuck.
This summer, the couple opened a second location on Preston Street in Ottawa, making them Eastern Ontario’s backyard birding specialty store.
The self-proclaimed “bird nerds” quip that “birding is deeply ‘seeded’ in our heart and soul” and their mission is to provide products, services and resources to enhance the backyard birding experience.
Besides selling designer birdhouses made of old barnboard, durable hummingbird feeders and food-grade seed blends, Volks also writes a blog twice a week and makes YouTube videos to offer tips for creating a backyard bird habitat and solutions for keeping pesky squirrels and raccoons out of bird feeders.
The couple also holds in-store workshops and seminars on everything from how to identify birds by sound to which flowers and grasses to plant to attract bees and butterflies.
For more information, visit: gilligalloubird.com