Bird watching 101!

So, a few weeks ago, i was in my basement mucking around whilst Dad was fixing this that and the other thing and i found a coupla pieces of wood that seemed to have another life... i had bought an upright bird feeder but the local fowls seemed to find it rather not to their taste and dining style and they have ignored it thus far... in fact, i have thought that there were no birds at all in my neighbourhood - never heard them, never saw them... kinda creepy. So i had a plan up my sleeve and on my workbench...
With careful engineering, some pencil markings, a few mis-steps with the drill and a lot of concentration on my part to make sure that the drill was going the right way ( i sometimes oddly get mixed up between forwards and backwards - i'm a good driver, really!), this is the end result - measured to perfection so that it fits over the railing of my new backyard deck - now to put seed on it and see if this is more to the bird's likings...

Here we go, all ready for feathered friends... (to be honest, i didn't even care if a squirrel showed up - i was that desparate for some sort of animal traffic to visit me and make sure i didn't live in a black hole here in the meadows). And to my great excitement, a few days later, a chickadee showed up, a few sparrows, some starlings, even a squirrel or two - and it seems that there is life (if i don't scare them away with my excitement and yells of "a bird, a bird!")
The reject bird feeder - i have no idea why this doesn't work to their liking but it seems something must be wrong with the design or something like that, any suggestions???