Helping Them To Make It

Hopefully, for most people who read this, Supreme Success means going for all the things you really want from life, without the sacrifice of what you have already - your health and fitness, your relationship, your friends and family, and whatever else you value.

For many people in the world, though, and, especially at this time of year, for birds and other wildlife, Supreme Success means simply to survive the night, and make it to the morning.

On TV and in the media we've seen the horrors of Dafur, and no doubt a lot of people reading this will have raised or given money to help Africa and other places where there's desperate need.

The hunger crisis facing many humans makes it easy to forget that there are other creatures, too, who need our help. It only takes a few minutes to provide it - and it doesn't even have to cost us anything.

The weather may be very different where you are, but here the temperature has dropped dramatically the past few days.

A sharp ground-frost has turned the local golf course into a sparkling wonderland - in the early morning sunshine, it looks as if it's carpeted with diamonds.

The air is crisp and fresh, the multi-colored leaves are coming down in vast profusion, acorns are strewn on the pathway through the woods... and the local birds are starving.

The ducks that usually live close to the bridge across a little stream have been missing all the summer. They're back now, quacking piteously, and fighting over the few bits of bread that any passer-by might throw them.

(It's worth taking some out specially, just to hear the lovely, contented little sounds they make when they're well-fed!)

In winter, a bird has to eat one third of its entire weight each day to stay alive. Less than that, and they simply can't keep warm enough to make it through the night.

Putting out peanuts and wild bird seed for the garden birds is wonderful, and if you have the chance to plant a shrub with winter berries on it you'll be doing lots of good - but even simply putting out left-over bread or a few stale biscuits is a life-saver.

It costs nothing to give them food that you would otherwise throw out, but it makes all the difference in the world to them.

If you haven't got a garden, there are lots of birds in parks, near streams, or pretty nearly anywhere outdoors who need some help in winter. They won't be fussy about the freshness of the bread - just grateful for the chance to stay alive.

If you do live near a park or stream, remember that the ducks or geese or swans who are well-fed at weekends and when school's out, and loving parents or grandparents encourage children to throw scraps to them, will probably go hungry once the kids are back at school.

It's best to put the food out in the morning - apart from the nocturnal kinds, a bird can only find its food in daylight, and in winter daylight hours are comparatively few.

That means that at the very time of year its need for food to combat cold is greatest, and when the sources of its natural supply (berries, insects, seeds, etc.) are at their lowest ebb, a bird has the fewest available hours of daylight to find food in.

The result? Each year, millions of them simply die of cold.

Please, if you have an extra slice or two of bread, you've trimmed some fat parts off your breakfast bacon, you maybe don't like crusts, or a few leftover biscuits have gone stale, don't just simply throw them in the bin.

Put them where the birds can find them, and help some fellow-creatures make it through the night.