In message , Eddy
writes
Hi, Martin. We've had the same experience as you and been through a
number of permutations before finding "the answer" . . . which is as
follows.

Buy one of those feeders which consists of a cylinder within a circular
barred cage (the bars are far enough apart for the birds to get inside).
Buy two metres of strong chain from a hardware store to suspend the
feeder from the branch of a tree. If the feeder is at least 3' above
the ground the birds will be safe from cats.

I wouldn't like to bet on that. One local cat has had a try for ours at
5' off the ground - it looked a bit surprised as it landed in the edge
of a thorny juniper bush afterwards so may not try it again.

In four years of this
arrangement we have never had a squirrel climb the tree, find the
appropriate branch, dare to shimmy down the vertical chain, then
endeavour to reach through the cage to get at the nuts. Once, however,
we observed a very game squirrel leap from the trunk of the tree to the
feeder, a distance of about four feet! When he hit the feeder he and it
swung wildly for a minute or so, and then he tried to get at the nuts .
. . but couldn't and so dropped the grass below and sloped off!

The anti squirrel solution I found effective was to mount the bird
feeder (steel mesh peanut type) on the top of an 8' 15mm copper pipe
hammered into the ground (the thread underneath some bird feeders is the
same as plumbers compression joints). Not even squirrels can climb up 6'
of polished metal pipe. Has to be well clear of trees though.

Minor weakness it that it doesn't really sway about enough so sparrows
can learn to land and feed on it. The bonus is so can woodpeckers.

Cheers,
--
Martin Brown

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