Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Okay, this is an ongoing heartache for months. Its not an issue about cost of food. I would not mind spending any amount of money to feed all the neighborhood critters...we have squirrel stations, its been an open door yard. Well that had to end when the STARLINGS arrived. Not only do they mob the yard...hog all the food, denying the little birds the food they need to live through the cold nights...ambush and viciously attack native birds...but I've actually seen them group-attack and drive away many other species and I know that just in my yard they've killed baby blue jays, baby robins and most recently an adult song sparrow. Even the red-bellied woodpecker alpha male fights back but cannot stand against eight or ten of these beasts. So I'm done negotiating with terrorists. Tried the upside down suet feeders: folks, they CAN and DO eat upside down. All it takes is one to do it and they all learn. Next I hung steel tent pegs as vertical baffles from the upside down grate: they hung on them and ate anyway. Same with thin coathanger baffles. Same with 12" roughsawn vertical cedar baffles. Drilled out holes in a log and hung it upside down. They clung to it by digging their claws into the drilled holes. I cried. Put suet away. Felt so bad for my carolina wrens (who can have 100% mortality this far north without some reliable food) my woodpeckers and sapsuckers that I ordered the Suet Palace. Well its only day one...but Carolinas have been in and out to chow down already; and even better two scout Starlings showed up, pounced all around the thing, and landed disappointed (at which point they pecked the hell out of each other. Charming as ever.) I do have the floor metal in place below the suet, so even when one starling dug one toe in he had no other place to land a second foot and dropped down. It is hung on a metal pole about eight feet high. I think hanging it higher is key and they can't really hover and switch their legs up in midair like a woodpecker or nuthatch can, then can only flip and grab onto horizontal wire if they have a short hop. May go out and add another three feet to the pole tonight. Am hoping if it works well enough to be able to lose the plate. I do not have squirrel suet or feeding problems as I feed straight safflower in all bird feeders, and use either Pennington or C&S Hot Pepper Suet. The squirrels have their own food boxes and never bother with the hot suet and only minimally with the safflower. Incidentally the starlings don't seem to eat the safflower, all they do is rudely throw it out of the feeder now and then. I will update as needed, but crossing my fingers that I can feed all my birds and have a safe and peaceful yard at last. If this works I'm buying three more. I found it fairly well built, the top is indeed held on by thin rings but I would reccommend hot pepper suet to prevent any problems with local mammals. It will stand up to birds just fine. ADDENDUM: Day Three: Those sad sad starlings don't even come into the yard anymore. We are thrilled to see so many more of our native birds throughout the day; we didn't realize how much they were driving them all away. For us, an all around success!