[tomba]

I understand this is "British Birds" but I'm not that far away in the south of France and I can't find a French forum...

Last year I started with fat balls. Blue and Great Tits galore and pairs of (never seen more than two together) Crested Tits and Nuthatches. Just the odd Green Finch and Siskin. The Long-tailed Tits were only interested in my olives!

This year it's fat balls again - same visitors - but after reading what the RSPB site had to say I added three gravity feeders with:

Canary seed
Yellow Millet
Nyger

These feeders are the domain of the finches, but it seems their preference is the Nyger.

I also put out white and striped sunflower seed. The Tits and the Nuthatches really go for them, not the finches.

There are flocks of Gold Finches around but I've not seen one feeding.

Questions:

1. Am I wasting my time (and money...) with canary seed and yellow millet? Should I just stick with the Nyger?

2. What can I do to attract Gold Finches?

3. When should I stop the feeding?

Thanks, Tom