My husband loved this...he used to have a sailboat and now we live on the river. Well made and easy to put together. Just make sure you have the top pole with the curved side toward the top.
As you may have wondered, as I did, about the design and efficacy, your thoughts are well-founded. Like a tire swing, the feed level is capped by the volume that the "tire" will hold as it hangs. And, what about the rainwater infiltrating the seed? How about the attraction to your squirrel population? Well, the quantity of seed is more than you'd imagine. And, the industrious birds don't mind diving in for those morsels when the level drops! As for rainwater, there is a drain hole, and the rain shade above the holes is wider than I expected, so any but driving storms will be an issue. As for the squirrels, it took them about a day to determine the best way to suspend themselves to get their fill (as I expected) so I will be adding a baffle (which will help with the rain, too). I will admit that I am thrilled about two observations I did not anticipate: (1) My Cardinals absolutely LOVE this feeder, and (2) observing the chickadees and nuthatches fly in one side, grab a seed, and fly out the other is way more fun to watch than I imagined. The cherry on top is that I grabbed this feeder for free during a Christmas special is the cherry on top! Except for the squirrel challenge, I think I'm going to get all available colors to create a theme park for the birds! Thanks to the artisans at Good Directions!