There's been several posts on this site as to my creativity (or lack thereof) around setting up bird feeders, most recently in the
bird feeder antics article that features a video of my spinning feeder. A really bad thumbnail of that picture shows how it started
(no double click)
but I strongly suggest watching the video if you have the time.
So, in that last article I pointed out that it was likely that the spinning feeder solution would not work for long and I was correct. It spun and fell off. Time to create the pulley system. I don't have any video or pictures of the initial pulley system that was put into place unfortunately. That said, it worked extremely well.
Not being satisfied with a working feeder, I decided to make some modifications to it. You will already note the slinky that's around the pole. This is to stop squirrels climbing the pole and getting to the bird food. Believe it or not, this works extremely well and is very funny to watch (shame I never have my video recorder when it happens). The squirrel climbs to the slinky, pauses to try and figure it out, then proceeds only to be lowered slowly to the ground. Alright, squirrels sorted, it was time to take on the jays. We have both scrub and Stellar's jays in the garden that seem to hog the feeders. They have access to the big feeder, but I wanted to make this one exclusive for the little birds, so I came up with the idea of encasing the feeder in chicken wire. I created a prototype and it worked, so I decided to go into production and create a case.
Works great, until one day I was looking outside the office window and saw ....
(Double click to see larger)
Sorry about the angle as the picture seems to highlight the bushes, but if you look closely you will see that there's something missing. Yep, my contraption had collapsed under its own weight.
Refusing to be deterred, I've decided that it only needs stronger rope to hold it up. I've therefore strung it up.
(Double click to see larger)
Next problem was the feeder looked like it was going to drop through the bottom of the chicken wire, so I've strung up the feeder inside the case that is stung up to the pulley (i.e. the feeder house is now suspended inside the cage. I haven't taken another picture of this yet).
My guess is that the pole will snap next with all the weight on it, but we will have to wait and see ...
