Dotsie, my husband is really into his birdfeeders. We went to a bird store and purchased a pole that has hangers in which to hang bird feeders from. We have 6 hangers (you can add to the pole) and we found if we put the pole out in the open instead of very close to a tree the birds like it better. They can fly right in and right out and can see if predators are about. Not much to do about birds pushing out the food though. We get the wild bird seed and when sparrows push out what they don't like, it provides food for the grounders as we call them. Doves and yes, we love our squirrels. We have a squirrel protector at the bottom of the pole so they can't climb up and the pole is far enough away from trees that the squirrels cannot jump onto the feeders. I'll try and send you a photo of our feeder tomorrow. We have cardinals, seveal types of sparrows, chickadees, house wrens, tit mouse and others and I love sitting in my window seat having coffee and watching the feed fest that goes on most of the day. We've noticed the hummingbirds have returned and we've put up two feeders. Wtih hummingbirds it's best to put the feeders on opposite sides of the house or where one feeder can't be seen by the other feeder because a dominate hummer will try to control all feeders in its view. (Learned that on the internet when I was reading up on the little suckers). To be so tiny they're sure aggressive. During hurricane Katrina we had forgotten to take our feeders in and were in shock to see these tiny creatures still feedering just as aggressively in hurricane force winds. We took video footage to prove it. I was impressed. Good luck.