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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It's a time in the Earth's history that speaks clearly to our own. The Eocene Epoch began – some 56 million years ago – with massive greenhouse gas… -
Our region's Native American legacy endures in communities and living cultural traditions – and in countless emblems and traces on the West Texas… -
There are few things as magical as flowing water in the desert. Such places refresh both the body and the spirit, and in a land like ours, their presence… -
When it comes to understanding the deep history of human life in the Americas, our region has played a pivotal role. Sites on the plains of West Texas and… -
In 1931, the Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb called windmills “the life-savers of the Plains,” one of three technologies – along with the six-shooter… -
For this episode, we’re teaming up with “West Texas Wonders” – a reporting series where listeners ask questions and Marfa Public Radio finds answers. This… -
Record-breaking heat and drought strained West Texas this year – and made many outdoors activities daunting. Yet one group of Big Bend outdoorspeople have… -
“How do you know but ev'ry bird that cuts the airy way is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?” In his characteristically visionary… -
“Without leaving home,” the Tao Te Ching says, “you can know the whole world.” It's a lesson the covid pandemic has taught many of us, who've found our… -
If you begin your day with coffee, or end it with a cocktail, you know that plants can pack a punch. Plants have been medicine throughout human history,…