By day, Gerald Miletello is an oncologist and hematologist. He spends his time creating a comfortable treatment environment for his patients. But by night, Miletello is designing a different kind of comfortable environment. This time, it’s for the birds.

After a long day, Miletello likes to unwind and recharge with a hobby that takes patience, a steady hand and lots of wood. A veteran hobby woodworker, Miletello retreats to the woodshop behind his house, lights a fire and turns on the news. He makes birdhouses, but they’re not what you would typically expect. Over the past 15 years, Miletello has been turning heaps of lumber into houses of worship that resemble real-life local counterparts.

Miletello notes that he had never seen a church birdhouse before he made one. Now he makes plenty for people around the Capital City. He takes discarded wood and turns it into something beautiful, proving that one man’s trash very well might be a bird’s treasure.

To read more about Dr. Miletello’s holy hobby, read this article from the February issue of inRegister, on newsstands now.