photo question

just wipe the lens

I get these spots too, but they change from trip to trip (after wiping lens), and increase in the winter. I'm not sure exactly as to their formation... snowflakes, temperature differential, condensation, & reductive residue thereof is my guess.

If the same spots persist after wiping, then follow the good advice above.
And yes, post dots, there's editing options. Unless of course you like them.

Pretty sure it is dust on the sensor. I took my 4-year old Sony to a shop in Seattle's Westlake area and the cleaned it for me for <$100, details on request. Required two trips down and waiting a bit. I was told that many openings and closings in dusty environments, or keeping the camera in a dirty environment (e.g. in my pocket without a case for easy access while hiking) might have contributed. In any case it is as good as new now.

One trick is to keep a bigger fstop (between f11 and f1.4), especially in bright conditions. This will limit the amount of spots that show up. As has been noted, less sky will hide these spots better as well. Also having better exposure compensation will help, especially when shooting in snow. In the above photos case, something like +1 f-stop would be beneficial. 

The best fix is to clean it though.

To clarify, larger apertures (bigger f stop can be confusing, as it implies larger numbers which means smaller apertures) result in less effect with dust due to decreased depth of field (crud is less in focus). As Lowell said, testing the camera by shooting the sky (overexposing by 1 stop or so) with a large aperture is the best way to find dust spots.
Ands as Jason mentioned, it's usually best to overexpose snow photos by 1 stop or so to keep it from going grey or blue.

If you decide to have your sensor cleaned, there is a guy in Shoreline who can do it for $ 30-40. He has a little store called Camera Clinic. I have had my sensor cleaned there several times.