D.I.Y. bird feeder.................................................................... the squirrel test

A friend saw this little kit the other day and thought about me and my problems with the squirrels in my garden wrecking mine.
It's to recycle an old plastic bottle and turn it into a bird feeder... looked simple enough.
I am at home with my feet up resting my knee so have plenty of time on my hands at the moment.

 I do use the cheapest seed feeders I can find because they do get destroyed on a regular basis.

 I know all about the squirrel proof types and there are some fantastic ideas out there but they all seem to use a cage of some sort to keep the squirrels out.
A disadvantage for me when taking images of the birds with my camera.

So after cleaning out a bottle or two as the thread size was wrong on the first one (above) which was then turned into a funnel.
I got to work at putting this simple feeder together.

The hanger just snaps off the feeding tray and after making two holes it the bottom of the bottle just clips in.
The feeding tray screws onto the thread of the bottle top... quite tightly so hopefully hard to dislodge.

It was only when I began to add some seed that I wondered what was going to stop it pouring straight through the upturned bottle... a quick look at the instructions revealed there should be a plug with the kit.

It had no plug!

It may have been missing when the item purchased or had fallen out without being noticed... but whatever had happened to the plug I decided it couldn't have been very secure in the first place and would certainly be be a weak spot for the squirrels.

A piece of plastic and some super glue resolved the problem and will surely be more difficult to remove than the original idea.

All I had to do now was hang it in the garden... and see how long it lasts... it's plastic and my squirrel has no problems chewing through plastic.

 If the plastic hanger fails I can always make a metal one.
Bottles are in plentiful supply so as long as the the tray survives I might get some mileage out of this one.
Only time will tell.

Guess who was watching while I put up the new feeder... far to cute for a vandal.

Watch this space.