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PODCAST

Nature Notes

Marfa Public Radio

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

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All Episodes

4:00

Listening to the Desert’s “Werewolf Mouse” Reveals...

Nature Notes ·

2025/05/01

Grasshopper mice are fierce, if diminutive, predators, that routinely dine on scorpions, centipedes and other venomous prey. And as they set out on their nightly hunts, they emit a long, piercing cry. It’s been called “a wolf’s howl in miniature.” Listening closely to these desert mice reveals the surprising world of “bioacoustics.”

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4:00

Patty Manning Pollinator Garden to Honor a Passionate...

Nature Notes ·

2025/04/18

The garden’s namesake was a passionate advocate for our region’s plants. Manning, who passed away September 8th, managed the Sul Ross greenhouse for 18 years, worked as a teacher and consultant and, with her partner Cindi Wimberly, founded Twin Sisters Natives. That business offered plants Manning had cultivated, with careful expertise, from seeds she’d collected.

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4:01

Riparian Raptors: For Birds of Prey, Cottonwood...

Nature Notes ·

2025/04/10

Zone-tailed hawks are among the birds of prey that rely on riparian forests – woodlands along creeks and streams – as nesting sites in the Big Bend. Each summer, these hawks return from the tropics to raise young in the same creek-side cottonwoods.

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4:00

On the West Texas Prairie, the Plainview Site Points...

Nature Notes ·

2025/04/03

In 1944, near the town of Plainview - 45 miles north of Lubbock - archeologists discovered two dozen examples of a previously unknown spearpoint – the Plainview style – among the bones of at least 100 Ice Age bison.

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4:00

The “Wooly Devil” is a Tiny, Wondrous Discovery in...

Nature Notes ·

2025/03/20

It’s the first discovery of a new plant genus in a national park in decades, and a landmark find. But the identification of Ovicula biradiata, the “wooly devil,” began with a simple walk in the park. The discovery is a reminder that while known for its vast landscapes, Big Bend National Park is also a place of hidden surprises.

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4:00

Stories in the Soil: Exploring the “Geoarcheology” of...

Nature Notes ·

2025/02/27

Lubbock Lake is one of several important archeological sites on the West Texas plains that testify to the earliest Americans, the “Paleoindians.”

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4:00

Mississippi Kites: New Raptors to West Texas Embody...

Nature Notes ·

2025/02/13

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

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4:00

With its Evolutionary Magic, the Grasshopper Mouse...

Nature Notes ·

2025/02/07

Pound-for-pound, grasshopper mice are among the fiercest predators in the desert borderlands, and they’re unfazed by venomous prey.

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4:00

Through a Fraught History, Golden Eagles Endure in...

Nature Notes ·

2025/01/24

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.

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4:00

Hognose History: Cracking the Code of a Star Snake in...

Nature Notes ·

2024/12/10

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.

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4:00

Scientist Explore an Enigmatic Lizard in the Chinati...

Nature Notes ·

2024/11/14

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.

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4:00

Biocrusts – “The Living Skin of the Desert” – Thrive...

Nature Notes ·

2024/10/31

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.”

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4:00

West Texas “Nabkha” Dunes Reveal a Rugged Region’s...

Nature Notes ·

2024/10/10

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.

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4:00

Megastar Médanos: Exploring Chihuahua’s Samalayuca Dunes

Nature Notes ·

2024/09/26

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.

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4:00

Independence Creek Preserve: A West Texas Oasis is...

Nature Notes ·

2024/09/20

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.

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4:00

Clues in the collection: museum artifacts reveal the...

Nature Notes ·

2024/09/05

As archeological techniques and perspectives evolve, artifacts collected decades ago can be as revelatory as new finds.

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4:00

From rocky redoubts, chirping frogs announce the...

Nature Notes ·

2024/08/29

Chirping frogs are typically less than an inch long, and you could mistake their whistling, trilling calls for an insect’s. But these little creatures have an epic story, one that distills the deep mysteries of biodiversity.

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4:00

The desert distilled: the science of sand dunes

Nature Notes ·

2024/08/01

More than any mountains, mesas or canyons, the region's sand dunes distill the desert’s defining phenomenon, drought.

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3:59

Archeologists unearth unexpected wonders in a cave...

Nature Notes ·

2024/07/25

Five years ago, archeologists began excavating the San Esteban cave south of Marfa, searching for evidence of the Big Bend's earliest inhabitants.

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4:00

From a Chisos Mountains cave, endangered agave bats...

Nature Notes ·

2024/07/11

At sunset tonight, a few thousand Mexican long-nosed bats will fly from a cave high in the Chisos Mountains. They’ll disperse to feast on agave nectar — pollinating the iconic plants in the process. These “agave bats” are deeply imperiled by human impact but for now, they’re holding their own.

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