Re: 'Squirrels in the garden are just driving me nuts' (Times Letters, January 4)

We have tried several different methods to deter squirrels from taking food from the bird table. Now we have solved the problem by fixing a clear perspex collar around the post and just below the table, ensuring the collar extends beyond the edge of the table.

At the first attempt, with a smaller, the squirrels were able to jump from the platform below and onto the table. Now it's amusing to watch them climbing the post, meeting the perspex, and trying to find a way through or round it!

Long curved wires in the corners of the table carry a nut hopper and fat ball, providing a good restaurant for many types of bird. On New Year's Day our garden was visited by robins, blue tits, great tits, sparrows, dunnocks, starlings, wood pigeons, blackbirds, magpies, a mistle thrush and a neighbour's doves.

Joy Stovell

Oakroyd Avenue, Potters Bar