What kind of finches? I've had Goldfinches and House finches almost all summer. House, all summer, Gold arrived mid summer. For me, the Junco's have arrived! So congratulations on your finches!

You probably had finches all summer but all you saw when you looked were sparrows.My husband did that for years now the problem is he only sees finches and not the rest of the sparrow family. In England you know there is a shortage of house sparrows along with Chipping and other common members of the sparrow family.

I had juncos in early September but they left. Not too much grass and weed seed this year do to the Very hot dry conditions. I live in Kansas City North (north of the river for those not from this area).

I developed an interest in bird feeding this fall, and not knowing what the birds would like best, I put out a birdie buffet: niger in one feeder, shelled peanuts in another, "regular" bird seed with lots of sunflowers in a pan on the ground, a holder with seed cake, a holder with a suet cake, yet another feeder with no-waste (mostly sunflower hearts) mix.

There's plenty of cover and non-feeder food in the garden as well--seeds and berries, lots of shrubs, ornamental grasses, trees, and a small above-ground pond that doesn't freeze (I keep a pump running) over completely in winter. I also don't use any pesticides, herbicides or fungicides, organic or otherwise, because I'm simply too lazy and can always find something more interesting to do in the garden, like weeding, planting, trimming, deadheading, starting new plants from seed, watering... That means lots of insect food in the warmer months.

It's bird BEDLAM out there! It started with a few house finches and a couple of juncos, but they clearly told all their friends and relatives, because now there are Mourning Doves, Blue Jays, two Northern Flickers, a Downy Woodpecker, and flocks of Juncos, House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches, Pine Siskins, Chickadees (who scold me a LOT), and House Sparrows. This afternoon, it looked like something out of Hitchcock's "The Birds", with birds at all the feeders and another dozen or so waiting in the nearby Beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis).

So what do I do? Go buy more feeders and more food....

Sounds like my house right now! Isn't it wonderful :-) Im a total bird feeder addict. Im even gardening for them now. Love the birdies.
Bonnie