A little help goes a long way: A little bird told me Published Oct. 29, 2007 By Judith Wakelam 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs RAF MILDENHALL, England -- With winter just around the corner, our feathered friends will be facing their hardest time of the year. As the hedgerows of autumn, seen bursting with nature's fruit a short while ago become depleted, birds will be facing the lean months of winter. Our summer visitors will have departed for warmer climes, and we will be joined by some winter visitors. The first redwings and fieldfares arrive from Scandinavia in October, and we may - if very lucky - be visited by waxwings, here to feed on berries; rowan, hawthorn, rosehips and cotoneaster. This is where we come in ... in a word, birdfeeders! My own garden displays a variety of them. Some contain pea-nuts, much favored by the Tit family of birds. Others contain mixed seeds for greenfinches, sparrows, chaffinches, hopefully siskins and anything else that cares to drop in. I also have a special feeder that holds tiny Niger seeds that will entice brightly-colored gold-finches to your garden. It's not necessary to be as "over the top" as I am. Just one bird-feeder in your garden will bring endless pleasure to those watching and can mean the difference between starvation and survival for birds during a very cold spell. Think for a moment what a difference one feeder in every garden could make. As the winter progresses our resident blackbirds will have taken the last of the crab-apples and will much appreciate an apple cut in half being put out for them, along with left-over scraps such as cake and bread and any other fruit. The familiar and much-loved European robin - much smaller than the American robin and often depicted on Christmas cards - will relish a few scraps and as a real treat some meal-worms. Robins become very tame if fed regularly. Balls consisting of fat, fruit, seeds and insects and packed with energy will be eagerly consumed by most birds, in particular noisy gregarious starlings. Both meal-worms and fat-balls can be bought at pet-shops and garden centers, but the latter are easily made if you leave out the insect part of the recipe. Making them is a task that can be undertaken by all the family and it's very rewarding to see your work consumed by hungry, appreciative birds. Clean water is an essential for birds in winter, not only to drink but to bath in. There's no need to buy an expensive bird-bath, a plant-pot saucer regularly topped-up with clean water will do the trick. Clean feathers help to keep a bird warm in winter. I also have several little bird roosts dotted among my garden shrubs; little woven pockets that give small birds protection from the coldest of nights. I'm constantly amazed at how many different birds drop in over the course of a day. There's always a pair of binoculars on my kitchen windowsill which sometimes means doing the dishes can be a long job with so many distractions. I get endless pleasure from my garden visitors and a few birdfeeders are a small price to pay for the privilege of having so many feathered friends drop in. For more information on how you can help garden birds contact the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds by clicking here.