Richard Cole held a wide variety of short-term jobs until his late thirties. He finally settling down with Motorola as a computer systems analyst and later a data center manager. During that period, he turned his wild bird feeding hobby into a little business and went on to opened his first Bird Watcher Supply Company store in 1988.

Richard’s wife, Nancy, operated the retail store and Richard continued his corporate job, helped at the store part-time and worked to perfect his special blends of wild bird feeds. He left the corporate world in 1990 to open their second retail store.

The Bird Watcher stores grew to five locations and Cole’s Wild Bird Products was formed to produce and distribute their bird feeds which now attracts a national following. Richard and Nancy sold their retail stores when Richard turned seventy. Cole’s Wild Bird Products is still owned and operated by the Cole family.