Nature Notes
Why do rattlesnakes rattle and hummingbirds hum?
How do flowers market themselves to pollinators?
Why do tarantulas cross the road?
Nature Notes investigates questions like these about the natural world of the Chihuahuan Desert region and the Llano Estacado. Through interviews with scientists and field recordings, this Marfa Public Radio original series reveals the secrets of desert life.
Join host Dallas Baxter for new episodes on each week on Thursdays. Episodes are written and produced by Andrew Stuart and edited by Marfa Public Radio and the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, Texas.
Nature Notes is supported by Shield-Ayres Foundation.
Latest Episodes
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Creosote’s therapeutic applications would make any biotech CEO green with envy. What are this desert shrub’s medicinal properties? And why is it such a pharmacological trove? -
What keeps an El Paso wildlife rehabilitator going through 16-hour days and the sadness of having to euthanize animals that can’t be saved? A dove named Larry, and a goose’s gratitude. -
Desert animals have adapted to surviving with little or no water during our dry winter and spring. How do they do it? -
Sediment is slowly choking the Rio Grande in the Big Bend region, causing more frequent floods and making it easier for invasive plants to take over its banks. What’s causing this unusual problem? -
You might think of plants as immobile, but they’ve evolved diverse strategies to scatter their offspring far and wide. What are some tactics desert plants use to scatter their seeds? -
Writer J. Frank Dobie wished he could be sung to sleep and woken by a coyote chorus every day. But not everyone regards coyotes so amiably. Who are these song dogs? And do they deserve their bad reputation? -
When Elephant Mountain gets too crowded with desert bighorn sheep, and it’s time to start a new herd in Big Bend Ranch State Park, how do you move 46 of these rare animals? -
Every winter, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico hosts a spectacular congregation of snow geese and sandhill cranes. Why do they flock here? -
Without the Dexter National Fish Hatchery and Technology Center, several desert fish species might have disappeared from our region. What is this unique facility? -
As all hay-fever sufferers will tell you, this is a bad year for pollen. Is all that pollen good for anything besides making you miserable?
