On Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:53:09 +0100, "Sue" wrote:


"Moonraker" wrote
On 29/07/2012 01:46, Sue wrote:

[Snip]
One is a strong 'caged' version from The Nuttery (got it on ebay at a
good price). The other has no cage, so great spotted woodpeckers
still come and visit it, but it's made with a tough ceramic top and
bottom and the body is of perforated steel rather than wire. You undo
a wing-nut and take the base off to refill.
It's proved strong enough to foil the blighters even after several
year's use. The young ones do come and try a few times before they
learn they can't tear this one open no matter what they do - after
that they leave it alone. I can't remember the make now, but I found
it in a local garden centre.

Yours sounds good Sue, but sadly too little information to locate it!

I did try and Google up something similar but I can't find one like it
on the market now, either.

The sprung-loaded type ones that close off the nuts to anything heavy as
a squirrel look as though they might work. Something like this, perhaps?
http://gardenbirdfeeder.co.uk/acatal...f_Feeders.html

Good luck with the search anyway. Hope you find a solution - it's not as
if bird food costs peanuts these days. :-/

We also had one of the ceramic and perforated steel peanut feeders. I
looked for a replacement a while ago, as the ceramic top was broken
when the feeder fell (or was pushed!).

We have had a 'Squirrel Buster Plus' feeder as on the link above for
some years now. The plastic perch ring has been destroyed by squirrels
twice, but there are alloy perches which the birds do use without the
ring. I have not been in a position to check if certain birds are
discouraged by lack of a perch ring. NB When I got the replacement
perch ring, I was told it was not included in the lifetime guarantee.

The squirrels cannot get at the food directly from the feeder, unless
it is hung somewhere they can get to it side-on, e.g. a close-by
branch. It is a large feeder, so you need something quite high and
strong enough to take the weight when full. As we wanted to see the
birds, we resorted to getting a tree surgeon (here to do other work)
to fix a chain on a sturdy branch high up, so it dropped in a space
between lower branches.

Gardening on Wilts/Somerset border
on slightly alkaline clay.