In a message dated 96-09-11 21:13:10 EDT, you write:

<< I'm trying to discourage them
and get the house finches as the dominant species. >>

We have many house sparrows as well as house finches at our feeder. We feed
only black oil sunflower seed so that doesn't work. Although I can
understand people not wanting to encourage "spuggies," I quite like them. My
garden this year was nearly bug-free because they were feeding all the
available bugs to their nestlings in the four nesting boxes we have around
the yard.

Maia Kelly
Selah, WA