Pigeons still around - but not so fat!

It's been a couple of weeks since I pigeon-proofed my feeders and bird tables, and generally it seems to have worked in at least stopping the pigeons eating everything and leaving nothing for the smaller birds - but they are still hanging around in large numbers, and still attempting to get into the feeders and onto the tables! Are they too stupid to realise they can't, or too clever and know that persistence will pay off in the end? As more and more gather I start to feel I'm in Hitchcock's "The Birds" and that they'll eventually knock over the feed tables by sheer weight of numbers!

One definite benefit has been not having to constantly refill feeders and tables on a slightly more than daily basis, now it's a couple of times a week, which shows just how much the pigeons were taking. I was originally worried I was also excluding blackbirds but have now seen them feeding on the tables regularly. I'm going to invest in a proper ground feeder sanctuary from the RSPB though, not sure the upturned hanging baskets are quite accessible enough for birds their size - fine if you want to feed the sparrow-sized birds, though.

The one food item I am having to keep in constant supply is any fat treat (suet nibbles, fat balls, suet cakes, whatever) - it's that time of year when they're all either breeding or raising chicks and they all need that extra energy boost. The starlings are keenest on the nibbles in the peanut feeder and squabble over them, but just lately the fat balls and suet cake have been graced by several jackdaws and a large rook who has managed to find a suitable place on the tree to grasp while he rips chunks of fat off (usually with the jackdaws hanging about below to catch anything he drops). Is it wrong of me to try keeping the pigeons away while being happy to watch a rook eating me out of house and home? He's an impressive sight, which the pigeons are not, so that's my justification!

Meanwhile, one more visitor may be suffering due to the pigeon-proofing, might let him have a few loose peanuts by way of compensation...