New feeder is painted, and hopefully we're going to install it this weekend. Of course, it won't be a success until I see birds feeding from it. No reason they won't. Bears won't be able to get into it, but it remains to be seen if they can manage to get any seed out of the ports. Surely, not as much as birds or bees shovel out. But if they do, we have ideas for preventing that. Didn't want to do any unnecessary welding if not needed. This was my first painting experiment with camouflage. I'm satisfied with it. I wanted the pattern blurry so photos of birds on the feeder perches will have good bokeh (background blur)!
The ports look small because of the largeness of the tank, but they're the same size as standard feeder ports. We can always add more perches if it looks like they're needed. To speed up birds getting used to it, I'll probably temporarily put little trays below the ports with seed on them. Always a work in progress. I'm excited!
Looks fantastic, Carolyn! Can't wait to see it in person! ~Matt
ReplyDeleteWow! Very impressive!…Gail.
ReplyDeleteWell done by you and your talented son. Good luck. How high off the ground is it when it's mounted?
ReplyDeleteThanks all. The wheel will sit on the ground or even a few inches into the ground. That'll be additional support to ensure a bear can't bend the feeder over, even though the 4" diameter post will be cemented into the ground 3' The wheel is welded to the tank. There's a steel sleeve welded inside the wheel that will slip over the 4 foot post about a foot. No way can a bear pick up the tank and maneuver it off the post. And if it could, it still couldn't get to the seed and we could slip the wheel back onto the pole. And if needed, it could be affixed so it can't come off. But a bear would have to pick the tank straight upwards and lift it a foot. Lee can barely lift it. A bear would only try to push or pull it over. I'm going to put a game cam on it to see how hard a bear tries to access it. I'm confident it's bear proof. It's nice that it can be lifted off the pole if we need to do more welding to it, like more perches.
DeleteLooks great and very promising!
ReplyDeleteJudy Sims- paint looks marvelous. I believe those little birds will be feasting soon!
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