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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Do you know how to identify plants of the Solanaceae family with their five petals? -
Tarantulas are scary looking. Many people kill them on sight, certain that the fuzzy spiders will jump onto them and bite, injecting a deadly poison. Nothing is further from the truth. -
There are a thousand stories about mesquite. Some people hate it and poison it with chemicals. Some people love the wood for its rich, dark hardness and use it for gun butts, clocks, tables, or rolling pins, or for the flavor it adds to grilled foods. -
The song of a Cactus Wren is a clattering roll with quick beats without melody. The sound carries farther than other sounds and has a hollow echo that reverberates in the heat of a summer afternoon. -
At the time of European settlement in West Texas, the mourning dove may have been the only dove species living in the area. -
Earthstars are fungi, a close relation to puffballs. Most people have seen puffballs - irregularly shaped ball-like mushrooms that are just dry spore sacks that make a satisfying "pop" when stepped on. -
After the rains, "rain bugs” or “Santa Claus bugs” appear, tiny velvety red plush cutie-pies. Even though they are called “bugs”, they are not insects at all, but arachnids, related to spiders. -
A Chihuahuan desert arthropod that looks ferociously dangerous is the big, black, whip scorpion, or vinegaroon. Normally they’re found in rocky country, only after significant rain events. -
Although the American Bittern is by no means a rare bird, it's almost unknown to many birders. -
West Texas is blessed - or is cursed - by two of the three species of grackles which are found in Texas.
