In police camera action style  i have managed to film a theft in progress in Bingfield Park.  There are three different squirrels who raid the bird feeder – though one of them falls off spectacularly in the middle of the film.  I have now put up a new Gardman feeder with a weighted sleeve (see also optimistic diagram in picture)
to deter squirrels some more (Robert Dyas have them on sale right now).  The last one was only squirrel resistant – that’ll teach me to read the label more carefully in future.  Let’s see if it works.

UPDATE……So far the squirrel has been foxed (can you ‘fox’ a squirrel?) by the new peanut feeder.  But only a single pair of blue tits are using it. I have now ordered a seed feeder to a similar design with perches that the chaffinches can use.  However the seed feeder that starred in the film above has been vandalised.  Complete theft was thwarted by having padlocked it to the tree with some wire
but it is unusable now.

MORE…. new seed feeder now hanging still no sign the squirrel has worked out how to demolish the existing Gardman peanut feeder.  Have seen squirrel sitting on branch above looking down at feeder but it can’t figure it out yet. I gave a friend one of these Gardman feeders for Xmas – she had given up on bird feeding due to squirrel raids and her (obese) squirrel hasn’t yet figured it out.  The trick seems to be to ensure that it hangs far enough away from other vertical surfaces so that the squirrel can’t leap sideways onto it. And of course to padlock it to the tree and hang it very high so that people can’t nick it