Probably goose down, this miraculous feather helped a goose keep its temperature a toasty 104 degrees while floating in water on a subfeezing day.

The prickly pear cactus reduces its water content, dehydrating to get through the cold and survive even subzero temperatures. Mosses “bloom” in wintertime, using limited moisture and can use the sunlight even through the snow.

Wahoo seed clusters provide brilliant red surprises in area woodlands this time of year. They are edible to birds but poisonous to humans.

This sunset photo shows the silhouette of leafless trees under geese flying south. Leaf fall from most trees has made it easier to see wildlife and things further away than you can see other times of the year.

Apioperdon pyriforme is the only puffball mushroom found in Kansas that lives on wood; other puffball mushrooms can also be found in prairies and woodland edges this time of year.

Recent winds and rains have caused many lingering leaves to fall, and though it looks like these elms have some lingering leaves on their tops, it’s actually a flock of blackbirds!

Many leaves have been slow to fall. Trees weaken the link between next year’s bud and this year’s leaf, but they need moisture to swell that space and pop the leaf off the tree.