This cardinal brings a little color and entertainment to the new year. It’s not too late to set up a bird feeder; it might take some time for the birds to find it, but word travels fast.

Look closely: all those little black dots in the beautiful blue sky are robins. They are a fairly common in Kansas winters, with hundreds or even thousands in a flock.

Great blue herons can be spotted in winter. Their diet is mainly aquatic but they are happy to snatch a mouse, shrew or other rodent in the winter if the ice limits options.

This time of year is a great time to lie down in some tallgrass prairie remnant on a sunny day, and it will shield you from the wind and insulate you from the cold ground. See what you see in the deep, blue winter solstice sky.

There’s a certain beauty to the patterns and colors of prairie grasses this time of year. Look carefully and you’ll see red, yellow and orange seeds and green rosettes of next year’s growth.