At the cottage, I've got a shorter feeder hook that clasps onto the deck rail. A small bird feeder is suspended there that I put sunflower seeds into. I noticed that the little red squirrels and the chipmunks were raiding it regularly, so I oiled down the pole with some light olive oil to make it nice and slippery. We've noticed it works well for many of our other poles and makes it very hard for the squirrels and such to climb. It's simply just too slippery.

Anyway, this particular pole is so short though, that the squirrel can get a running start up the pole and get one little toe onto the feeder before he starts to slide back down. So he dangles there for a bit trying to grab and seed or two before his feet slip away and force him back down. It's quite hilarious really. The poor littled chipmunk can't even make it that far, he just slides back down without being able to grab onto anything with a toe or two. Something tells me though, they'll figure out another trick.