Bird word: parrots of the north

Bird word Palmate: When there is webbing between the three forward toes on a bird's foot. Ducks and mergansers are palmate. The term appears in the names of the semipalmated sandpiper and the semipalmated plover, both of which have a degree of palmation. Totipalmate birds, such as pelicans and cormorants, have webbing between all four toes.

A different kind of snowbird While many bird species leave Minnesota as winter approaches, others make their way into the state. Pine siskins move our way from their Canadian nesting sites. Common redpolls also show up on occasion. Watch weedy fields and long-grass meadows for sweeping flocks of these birds. They might visit your feeders, too.

Bare farm fields and road edges are good places to look for snow buntings, another winter visitor. They, too, move in undulating flocks, sometimes made up of hundreds of birds.

It's suet time Winter is a good time to offer suet at your feeders. Suet (the fat that surrounds a cow or sheep's kidneys and loins) is a substitute for the insects birds eat in warmer months.

In the good old days, butchers gave suet away. Today you have to buy it, but it's a good investment. You can buy it by the chunk and cut to fit any suet feeder or pick up preformed suet cakes, which fit into wire boxes that sometimes are attached to seed feeders.

One note of caution: Squirrels and raccoons are attracted to suet. I put a baffle on my feeders to keep those gluttons at bay.

JIM WILLIAMS