Will our makeshift bird 'table' be too crappy?

[Foxules]

Three year old gloomily looking out of the window every five minutes at two mushroom crates with an old baking sheet on top, with two ashtrays one with a seed mix the other with meal worms in, will birds come or should we buy or make a proper one? (Would like proper one eventually but would have to wait) Our allotment is teeming with birds but we have a paved/ gravel garden here. Though I have seen wrens before and a few others, theres an empty workers yard to the back and trees there with birds, so I'm hoping. I've always got water out.

I've told DS it takes time for the birds to find the new food. Will they come though?

Sound like you've made a cat table. Somewhere that cats can go and get some nice feathery lunch. I think birds would be happier with natural material too, but get it higher first.
I've made some very popular bird tables. A scrap of flat wood with some edging nailed to the top so the seeds didn't blow off. Leave a few gaps in the 'kerb' to let water run off.
Fat balls would work really well. Tits are some of the bravest birds about.
Are there any places where birds can sit before committing to eating at your table? They like to perch nearby and have a good look first for danger before flying in to eat.

Like twiggy says, if you have hanging stuff then the blue tits will arrive pretty quickly. You can make your own fat balls by mixing birdseed into melted lard or suet and letting it set with a bit of string running through it so you can hang it from something (put it in the freezer to set, is quicker and makes it harder). Lovely messy job for 3 year olds - make sure the fat is warm enough to squish, not melted and boiling! Or just invest in a couple of peanut feeders.

I would say make sure they are squirrel proof but if you have a 3 year old to entertain then squirrels can be brilliant.

Thank you both. There's the ex Christmas tree at the bottom of the garden for perching, we did leave it there on purpose to make a shelter. It's near to the crappy table. It really would be easy for cats being so low but we've not had a cat in the garden before. There is a high stone wall, cats could come if they wanted though I'm sure. Sadly the wall makes it difficult to hang anything and the other option is the house or bare young fruit trees not wanting to hang things off them just yet.

We will get a bird table I think, as they look as cheap as raw materials, not having any scrap wood about. We've had one blackbird visitor but not sure he ate anything. :)

I would get a feeding station rather than a table. You can hang feeders off them - peanut feeders, seed feeders, fat balls etc. In my experience birds like them better than tables, and I think they are about the same price.