The feed station was home-made and built during November 20. I used 15mm wood throughout. The box has a perspex front and this is probably the only slightly tricky bit in the build. A groove needs to be cut on each side piece into which the perspex fits, this is shown as a dotted line in the plan below. I’m sure with professional equipment this is easy but at home I found it a little fiddly.
The lid of the box is hinged with the hinge being made from an old bike tyre, as I’ve done before with bird boxes. In this case the idea is that the lid protects the nuts from birds but can be easily lifted by our squirrel friend.
Once built the box was treated with a standard wood protector.
The plan for the construction is shown below.
The box was installed on 11th November 2020.
It is located on the Cedar tree in the back garden, around 1.5m from the ground. I need it to be low enough that it can be easily refilled although I don’t want it so low to attract rodents. Even if rodents are avoided I imagine that the other likely visitor may be a Beech Marten.
If I manage to attract a Red Squirrel or a Beech Marten that would obviously be fine.
A motion activated trail camera is installed on the fence and gets a great view onto the feed box. I think anything taking from the box should be recorded.
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