The birding column in today's STrib, Variety / Home and Garden, is about suet. I quote prices from here and there for suet calkes, my finds ranging from $1.99 to $2.79 each. A reader sent an email telling me he found suet cakes at Menard's for 79 cents. It never occurred to me that you might find suet there.

Here are three ways to offer suet to birds. There is my ugly but inexpensive hardware cloth baskets, my standby for years. Next, a log with drilled holes into which suet plugs fit. And a suet basket, holding the suet cakes mentioned above. The bird at the basket is a Lewis's Woodpecker, photographed in Rapid City, S.D.