My new MK II bird feeder, incorporating learnings from my MK I bird feeder

My MK I bird feeder, made out of scraps of treated sawn timber, gave sterling service for over tens years. During that time it has been modified, tweaked, extended and rebuilt as I fought Grey Squirrels, Wood Pigeons and latterly Rock Doves and Feral Pigeons.

Alas, my MK I bird feeder has been getting too grotty, was proving too cumbersome with its previous design features, and a pain to clean. The final straw came when I started using Gardman suet balls. These otherwise excellent fat balls suffer from one major short coming - they disintegrate in heavy rain. This created a sludgy mess, which clogged up drainage holes and produced a smelly mess - not that the birds minded too much.

Last Thursday, I grabbed the opportunity that a dry day offered me and spent three hours in the afternoon crafting a new bird feeder. Rain stopped play, and building resumed on Saturday afternoon, partly finishing off the bird feeder and partly modifying the existing anti-pigeon cage.

Unveiling took place at about 7.00pm Saturday evening.

Paramount design requirement was for a roof. The lack of a roof for my MK I feeder didn't really cause any problems. In fact it was a boon for Jays, as they could stand on the side supports and lean into the feeder to clear up scraps. It was my move to Gardman suet balls, and their tendency to disintegrate in heavy rain, that necessitated a roof.

The roof also had to be easy to remove, to facilitate cleaning.

Pigeons are actually intelligent and highly persistent birds. They caused me the most grief, and prompted major modifications to the MK I bird feeder. They are surprisingly nimble as well, particularly Rock Doves. They were able to shimmy down the vertical supports of my MK I feeder and enter the feeder proper. I finally resorted to building a cage out of some 3"x2" plastic coated mesh I had left over.

The mesh was supported by a cradle which, unfortunately had a beam across the middle of the feeder. This beam had to be modified as I needed an easily removeable roof.

Here's the wrap around cage under final construction.

The middle beam has been cut away, and the sides supports strengthened with some fillets of wood. It's a bodge jobbie, but I was tired (too much work) and lazy. I may well have to revisit the support cradle. The centre beam was actually one piece of wood, jointed and glued into place. Unfortunately, the glue didn't hold - hence the fillets of wood.

The pieces of cane are to stop pigeons landing on the supports. Once they are on a support they can either drop down into the cage or shimmy down a support to gain access to the feeder. They would also land on the top edge of the wire mesh - how on earth can they land on something so narrow?  Once on the mesh they can again drop down into the feeder. This is why I tied in a lattice made of plastic coat garden wire.

It's a shame I had to add the cage as it stops Jays getting to the feeder. I'm also concerned that it might put off our local Great Spotted Woodpecker. However, it can fit through the 3"x2" mesh.

Here is the whole contraption put together.

The wrap around cage just drops down over the feeder, to rest on guide rails.

Birds are incredibly messy eaters, seeming to spit or fling seed/nets to one side. I think it's because they don't like a particular seed or nut. However, other birds that come along do like the discarded seed/nut, and will happily eat them. So much seed/nut was being spread on to the floor (much to the delight of Dunnocks) it was keeping about 10 Wood pigeons and up to 20 Rock Doves/Feral pigeons well fed. The latter would sit on our roof and aerial gloating at me, before soaring own, en masse, whenever song birds or Blackbirds arrived at the feeder and spread seeds/nuts all over the place.

I stopped this wastage by first adding a high, raised edge to the base of the bird feeder; two sides made of clear acrylic so as to see small birds in the feeder, and secondly by making trays out of 3mm stainless steel mesh (bought off Amazon) to attach to the peanut feeder and anti-squirrel fat ball feeder.  Since these modification, Wood pigeon and Rock dove/Feral pigeons numbers have plummeted. We only see about two or three of each. Wood pigeons about once or twice a day - or not at all.  Sadly, there is always one or two Rock Doves/Feral pigeon around.

The roof and overhang worked perfectly. Overnight heavy rain did not soak the suet balls and cause them to disintegrate. A major band of heavy rain is expected today, which will be a real test of the MK II bird feeder.

What was particularly fascinating was bird behaviour. When I first fitted the wrap around cage, visiting tits were disconcerted. They knew there was good eating to be had. They could see their usual food, but there was this thing in the way. They would fly at the feeding station, they shy away.

It was the Great Tits who overcame their wariness of the cage quickest. Within minutes, to be exact. I think followed by Long Tailed Tits. It was Blue Tits who took the longest to get used to the cage - about three days in some cases.

Now here is the fascinating bit. When I removed the cage to modify it, the birds were again disconcerted, repeatedly flying at the feeder then shying away. Some, Great Tits and Long Tailed Tits in particular, quickly adapted, but not so the Blue or Coal tits.

Once the cage was back in place, all song birds were happy - though the odd one is still a bit put out with the roof.

Here is my nemesis, walking around the ring of despair.

I will give the feeder a coat of water based preservative late one evening. It will be after birds stop coming to the feeder, and being water based will dry very quickly and be safe.