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 every week. Through interviews with scientists and field recordings, this Marfa Public Radio original series reveals the secrets of desert life.
Join host Dallas Baxter on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:45 am during Morning Edition and 4:45 pm during All Things Considered. New episodes premier on Thursdays and replay on Tuesdays. Episodes are written and produced by Andrew Stuart and edited by Marfa Public Radio and the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, Texas.
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Mississippi kites are slender and elegant, with 3-foot wingspans and plumage that fades from black to a pale gray-white. They once summered mostly in the Southeast, nesting in deciduous trees. But as people brought those trees to the Texas plains, the kites followed -
Pound-for-pound, grasshopper mice are among the fiercest predators in the desert borderlands, and they’re unfazed by venomous prey. -
Standing 2 and a half feet high, with wingspans of 7 feet or more, golden eagles are the apex avian predator of West Texas. The region is home to golden eagles that breed here and are year-round residents, as well as eagles that travel here from more northerly climes in winter. -
West Texas is rich in reptiles, and the western hognose snake is one of the region’s stars. Its calling card is its shovel-like face, but the snake – which poses no threat to humans – also has a host of fascinating behaviors and adaptations. -
Trans-Pecos Texas has a stunning diversity of reptiles and amphibians, and herpetologists, both professional and avocational, flock here from around the world. Now, researchers are turning their attention to one example of that diversity – a mysterious lizard known as the Dixon’s whiptail. -
Gypsum landscapes occur globally, but they abound in the Chihuahuan Desert, from Coahuila and Durango to the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas and New Mexico’s White Sands. These white-sand outcrops are certainly harsh. But they’re also hotspots of biodiversity. That includes the complex, fragile ecosystems known as “biocrusts.” -
Large swaths of West Texas are dominated by features called coppice dunes. These dunes reveal that, when human activity and extreme weather intersect, landscapes can be rapidly transformed. -
When it comes to sand dunes in our region, we think of New Mexico’s White Sands, the Monahans Sandhills, or the Salt Basin Dunes near the Guadalupe Mountains. But there’s another great sand sea here. -
Established in 1962, the National Natural Landmarks Program each year designates a handful of sites in public or private ownership that embody the best of the nation’s natural heritage. And the newest landmark is a West Texas property. -
As archeological techniques and perspectives evolve, artifacts collected decades ago can be as revelatory as new finds.
