...and speaking of seeds

There are lots of these cheerful little faces under my bird feeders. Is this from the nyger seed or something different from the mix?

Here's a photo to show the leaves too. This is looking down on top of the plants which seem to get to about 18"

they're pretty philomel, can't help with the identification though,sorry.
All I seem to get under my bird feeders are grasses and sunflowers.In fact I had so many problems with things sseding that I've turned that area into a tiny wild-life meadow, and I mean tiny.So I bunged a few wild flower seeds onto it too,it doesn't look too bad, better than it did before.

wild flower meadows can be fun, very attractive and good for wildlife :)

I'm only curious as to what this plant is, not a major thing. I looked on Google, but the only photo of niger didn't look just like this to me but wasn't good enough to be certain

you'll know for sure when it sets seeds

LOL
If I let it ;) Thought you'd know, being a compositae fan

Looks like Nyjer to me

http://images.google.com/images?q=Guizotia+abyssinica&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

makes you wonder where the Americans got the name Thistle seeds instead of Nyger but then again we arent using the latin name

Is it a Thistle Hilary?

I've got a niger feeder, and haven't found anything like that under mine.
Mind you, just having got back from my hols ,all my birds seem to have vanished.I filled the feeders on Saturday, and they're still full, not a sign of my sparrows anywhere,there's normally loads of them flocking the feeders.I've only seen a great tit and a blue tit so far.

Thanks Baa, you've got there yet again :)

Doesn't look like one, but they're both Asteraceae mark. Thistle's another common name isn't it, and covers a lot of species and even genuses (or is that geni, as in the lamp:) The niger's not prickly anyway.

Here's some extra info http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/agap/frg/afris/Data/503.HTM

Oh well sue, if the birds don't eat the seed perhaps you'll get some, though I see they're annual, so probably won't have time to flower this year before the frost

Sue birds move on very quickly when the food source has stopped.

I've been really lucky as I often let mine run out for a week at a time, but they keep coming back :)

Which reminds me..............
lol