I hadn't got any bricks, just the one I put on top of the feeder to stop it getting knocked over, so I used that with a bit of 3" x 2" to make it higher, as a barrier as Logan suggested. I found a spare granite sett to use as a weight on the top. The camera picked him up (and the cats) which didn't attempt to get in. 'arry ate his dinner and some of the pellets. He has now taken in the two handfulls of hay I've left on his patio over three days. So I've left him some more. He must be "packing it in," maybe he knows it might be a hard winter. We're only likely to see him now for another couple of weeks, if he hibernates around the same time as he did last year.
I'm going to sort out that end of the fence that's there to keep the cats out who were hiding under the azaleas and trying to pounce on the birds using their ground feeder. I'm going to make that end detachable, so it'll be easier to access the house.
I've sorted out the back end of the wire enclosure, so now the back end is a removeable "gate." I needed a couple of those green metal 1mtr plant stakes from Wilko. Whilst I was fixing it I heard him moving his furniture about a bit, but it didn't take him long." I took the opportunity of pruning off a few dead azalea branches and gave his "garden" a bit of a weed and removed a lot of small dead azalea leaves. I've left him some more hay. I expect we'll only be seeing him for two or three more weeks, but I'll keep leaving his food out for a couple of days after he stops coming out. The camera will tell me if he does. I'll leave some water in a dish near his house.
I've still got a problem with one cat, he's backwards and forwards to the patio all night. I don't think it can get into the feeder now I've put the bricks there. But having got in once before the bricks were there, it's thick enough to think it might still be able to get in. But while it's there it could put 'arry off. From time on the two photos below, he's back and forth for six hours So I've tried to make it even more difficult for it to even look in. I found a bit of hardboard in the shed, which I cut to size and wrapped in duct tape, because the rain would ruin it. I've screwed it to the block of wood and that in turn to the top brick so it can't be shifted. It forms a bit of a tunnel. Shouldn't bother 'arry as it's not that different to the entrance to his house.
As well as the cats we had another visitor last night. This, believe it or not will have been born in early March.. It just had a wander around, had the sense to realise it couldn't get into the feeder. I don't think it'll bother 'arry. Still it was just the one. Five years ago these six were born under our summerhouse at the bottom of the garden. They didn't do much damage.
'arry made us smile when I checked the recordings from last night. It was raining, so at 9.30 pm he made a quick 360 degree trip around his feed station before diving in for his dinner. He was probably checking for cats.
