Who's in the nest?

The pot has only been turned upside-down there since October.. it is an old pot but pigeons pooped on it and the weather has battered it !!

There are no droppings i can see and no fur, no signs of anything which had me wondering what it could be. Never seen a rat but my cat does bring be lovely mice as gifts in the house... my shed is next to this part of garden and that's not got any visitors as far as I can tell.

I think I'm very, very, painfully slowly catching up with this. What you're saying is since you put the pot next to the feeder, something has construction that 'nest' inside?

I agree with the recent post about evidence of rats. I also wouldn't have objects left next to a feeder for cats and other mammals to get at feeding birds from close range.

I recommend a trail cam. You might be shocked with what it captures in video!

So you're saying that something has painstakingly manoeuvred that material twig by twig through those tunnels into that pot, then woven them into a tidier structure than I've ever seen an animal make and then completely failed to line the home with dried leaves/moss/fallen feathers to make it comfortable. Very odd.
Maybe it got eaten by a fox halfway through the build (foxes are my answer to most garden mysteries).
I have (some) rats but I've never seen an actual rats' nest, but I have seen rats' nests of wiring in computer rooms which would imply that the real nest of a rat would not be that tidy.

There are plenty of twigs around, I can see where it's dug under the pot and excavated the soil behind it, there is a small heap... so it's dragging them in straight to pot it's well shaded under leylandii trees and bushes and would have had bird seed and bird poo (if that was it's thing) readily available so can see why something chose that spot ... but I've been more active in the garden since the days are longer and I think I've scared it off. I don't get foxes in the garden although they are in the area. Just was fascinated as to what could build it, it's beautiful.

Above is where the nest is and the other picture is the soil dug out. I've filled the front hole in to see if it gets dug out again... then I'll know there's still interest there ♀️