NaturallyScott

Scott
  • 4.5 (15)
  • Nature

At least once a week, I’ll bring you the very best of America’s spectacular world of nature — from birds to mammals, to reptiles and amphibians. From soaring mountains to endless plains, from rugged coastlines to rivers and streams.  Each episode will feature an expert guest — a ranger, a researcher, a birder, or an adventurer — someone who has seen what we want to see and been where we want to go. 

  1. 5d ago

    E80 John Squires – Canada Lynx, Wolverines & a Lifetime in the Wild

    Send us Fan Mail Title E80 John Squires – Canada Lynx, Wolverines & a Lifetime in the Wild Buzzsprout Description Canada Lynx and wolverines are two of North America’s most elusive mammals. Most of us will never see either one in the wild. John Squires has spent decades following both. In this episode of Naturally Scott, Scott Harris sits down with John, a research wildlife biologist with the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station, whose career has taken him deep into the snowy forests and mountains of the American West. John’s path actually began with birds of prey. As a seventh grader obsessed with raptors, he called the Colorado Falconry Club and soon found himself following a goshawk through the scrub oak outside Denver. That fascination with wildlife eventually led to a career studying some of the most secretive predators in North America.  john-scott (1) In this episode: 🐈 How John helped launch a decades-long study of Canada Lynx ❄️ Why enormous paws make lynx perfectly adapted for deep snow 🐇 The extraordinary relationship between lynx and Snowshoe Hares 🐾 Finding 23 sets of lynx tracks on the first day of a new research project 📡 What scientists have learned from tracking and collaring more than 250 lynx 😳 Coming face-to-face with an angry mother lynx while holding her kitten 🏔️ Why mountain lions sometimes kill lynx—but don’t eat them 🐾 How long wild lynx can live and how much territory they need 💪 Why wolverines require territories several times larger than lynx 🦴 How wolverines find carrion buried beneath deep snow—and crush bones other predators can’t 📈 Why John is now seeing encouraging signs for wolverines in the Northern Rockies John has spent nearly 30 years studying Canada Lynx, and what began with those first tracks has grown into a research program involving hundreds of animals and an extraordinary body of knowledge about how lynx survive at the southern edge of their range.  john-scott (1) It’s a conversation about science, fieldwork, predators, deep snow—and what we can learn by spending a lifetime following animals most people will never even glimpse.

  2. Sep 24

    E79 Naturally Scott Adventures – Sandhill Cranes: A Million Birds on the Platte

    Send us Fan Mail Every March, one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in North America takes place along a relatively short stretch of Nebraska’s Platte River. Roughly a million Sandhill Cranes migrate north each spring, and an estimated 80 percent of them funnel through the Platte—a remarkable migration bottleneck where enormous numbers of these ancient birds gather to rest and refuel before continuing toward their breeding grounds.  In this edition of Naturally Scott Adventures, Scott Harris takes us into the blinds and fields of Nebraska to experience the spectacle from darkness before dawn until the last cranes return to the river at night. In this episode: 🐦 Why hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes converge on the Platte River 🌅 What it’s like to arrive before dawn and hear tens of thousands of cranes slowly awaken 📣 How a Sandhill Crane produces its extraordinary prehistoric-sounding call 🪽 Watching thousands of four-foot-tall birds begin jumping, calling, and finally taking flight 🌽 Where the cranes go—and what they eat—during the day 💃 Why Sandhill Cranes dance, leap, bow, and toss objects into the air ❤️ What “mate for life” really means for a Sandhill Crane 🦅 Bald eagles, coyotes, white-tailed deer, and the other wildlife sharing the Platte 🐔 Scott’s side trip to watch Greater Prairie-Chickens and Western Meadowlarks dance ❄️ How to combine the Platte River migration with another enormous migration spectacle: the Snow Geese of Loess Bluffs And then there’s sunset. Scott returns to the river as the first cranes circle overhead, small groups begin dropping into the shallow water, and eventually thousands seem to rain from the sky. The noise slowly builds—and then, after darkness falls, gradually disappears. On Scott’s final night, approximately 20,000 cranes settled into the river. The birds went silent, the blind went dark, and from somewhere nearby came the howl of a lone coyote.  It was a fitting ending to an experience that has been described as soul enriching—and one Scott believes every wildlife lover should experience at least once.

  3. Sep 17

    E78 Jane Rodgers – Joshua Tree: Protecting a Desert in a Changing World 🌵🏜️

    Send us Fan Mail Joshua Tree National Park sits at the meeting point of two deserts, welcomes roughly three million visitors a year, and protects a landscape filled with Joshua trees, desert bighorn sheep, mountain lions, tortoises, bats—and some of the darkest skies within reach of Southern California. In this episode of Naturally Scott, Scott Harris sits down with Jane Rodgers, superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park, to talk about what it takes to protect one of America’s most recognizable desert landscapes. Jane began her National Park Service career as a biologist working in restoration ecology and ecosystem stewardship. Today, she oversees a park confronting everything from rapidly growing visitation to invasive plants, changing fire regimes, hotter and drier conditions, and a dramatic decline in desert tortoises.  In this episode: 🌵 What makes a Joshua tree a Joshua tree—and its remarkable relationship with the yucca moth 🏜️ How the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet inside the park 🐏 Desert bighorn sheep, mountain lions, badgers, bats, and more than 250 species of birds 🐢 Why desert tortoise numbers have fallen so dramatically 🔥 How invasive grasses are changing the desert’s natural fire regime 🌡️ What hotter, drier conditions mean for the future of Joshua trees 🌱 How scientists are identifying potential refuges and preserving Joshua tree genetics 🥾 How the park has adapted as visitation climbed from roughly 1.5 million to 3 million ⛏️ The hundreds of abandoned mines scattered across the landscape 🦇 How old mine openings are being made safe for people while remaining accessible to bats 🌌 Why Joshua Tree’s night skies have become part of the park’s appeal Jane also gives Scott her itinerary for someone with just one day at Joshua Tree—from entering through the west side and exploring the Joshua tree forests and famous rock formations to Keys View and the drive toward Twentynine Palms. It’s a conversation about a spectacular desert, the wildlife that depends on it, and the scientists and park staff working to ensure it remains wild for generations to come.

  4. Sep 10

    E77 Naturally Scott Adventures – Wild Burros of Oatman: Where Burros Rule Route 66 🫏🏜️

    Send us Fan Mail Along historic Route 66 in the Arizona desert sits the tiny town of Oatman—a former gold-mining community where the most famous residents have four legs. In this edition of Naturally Scott Adventures, Scott Harris visits the wild burros of Oatman, Arizona, descendants of the animals that once worked the region’s mines. When mining faded, the burros were left behind. They adapted to the brutal desert, survived, and generations later still roam the Black Mountains. But Oatman’s “town burros” have discovered an easier way to make a living. Each morning they wander into town, stroll down Main Street, climb onto sidewalks, poke their heads into shops, and happily accept treats from visitors. If a burro decides to lie down in the road, nobody moves it—locals simply put out traffic cones and everyone drives around. In this episode: 🫏 How Oatman’s mining burros became wild desert animals ⛏️ The gold-rush history behind this unusual Route 66 town 🏜️ How burros survive extreme heat, scarce food, and limited water 👑 Why Oatman’s town burros really do seem to run the place 💪 The surprising strength and toughness of wild burros 💧 How jacks protect their groups and defend precious water 🐴 The challenge of managing America’s wild burro populations 🍦 Scott’s childhood memories of Oatman and Thrifty Ice Cream Scott also heads outside town to see the more independent desert burros and shares other places to find them, including Lake Mead, Death Valley, and Custer State Park. It’s a wildlife adventure, a Route 66 road trip, and a visit to one of the wonderfully strange places that could only exist in the American West.

  5. Sep 3

    E76 Amy Tan – Backyard Birds, Art & Finding Wonder Close to Home 🐦🎨

    Send us Fan Mail Amy Tan is best known as the bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club. But in recent years, another passion has taken over much of her attention: the birds in her own backyard. In this episode of Naturally Scott, Scott Harris sits down with Amy to talk about The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a deeply personal collection of observations, sketches, questions, and encounters that grew out of her return to nature during a difficult period in her life. What began as a private journal eventually became a book filled with Amy’s own artwork and the intimate stories of the birds she came to know just outside her window.  In this episode: 🐦 How birding helped Amy rediscover beauty and curiosity 🎨 Returning to drawing and learning the art of nature journaling 🏡 Discovering more than 70 bird species in her own yard 🦉 Living alongside a mother Great Horned Owl and her young son 💧 The daily ritual of feeders, hummingbird nectar, mealworms, and fresh water 💔 The heartbreak of seeing sick birds—and why Amy sometimes takes her feeders down 🧠 What birds reveal about intelligence, behavior, play, and even emotion ✍️ Why nature journaling is less about making perfect art and more about asking better questions Amy also explains why she has little interest in chasing only rare birds. For her, the real joy comes from watching familiar birds closely enough to notice how their behavior changes from day to day.  It’s a conversation about birds, art, curiosity, attention—and the extraordinary things that can happen when we slow down and truly look at what’s right outside our door.

  6. Aug 27

    E75 Naturally Scott Adventures – California Condors: Giants of the Grand Canyon 🦅🏜️

    Send us Fan Mail With a wingspan approaching 10 feet, the California Condor is a bird you don't simply see—you experience. In this edition of Naturally Scott Adventures, Scott Harris travels to Navajo Bridge in Arizona, where the Colorado River cuts through Marble Canyon and one of the rarest birds in North America has found an extraordinary place to roost. Scott considers it the best place in the world to experience California Condors, with birds sometimes resting on the bridge girders almost directly beneath you.  Scott follows the condors through their day: waking slowly as the canyon warms, spreading enormous wings in the morning sun, riding the developing thermals into the sky, traveling tremendous distances in search of carrion, and eventually soaring back into Marble Canyon to roost for the night.  In this episode: 🦅 What it's like to stand just feet away from a California Condor 🌄 Seeing condors at Navajo Bridge and Marble Canyon 📏 Just how enormous a nearly 10-foot wingspan looks in the wild ☀️ How condors use thermals to travel incredible distances 🏷️ Why wild condors carry numbered wing tags—and how those tags let you learn the story of an individual bird 🥚 The extraordinary effort required to raise a young condor ⚠️ How California Condors came terrifyingly close to extinction ❤️ The captive-breeding program that brought them back 🎯 Why lead ammunition remains one of the greatest threats to their survival Scott also shares other places to search for California Condors, including Pinnacles National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, and Zion National Park, and explains why seeing one of these enormous birds soaring through a canyon is a wildlife experience that's difficult to forget.  This is the story of an ancient bird that fell to fewer than two dozen individuals—and the extraordinary effort to give these giants of the sky another chance.

  7. Aug 22

    E74 John Koprowski – Squirrels: Tiny Athletes, Brilliant Survivors & Backyard Geniuses 🐿️🌳

    Send us Fan Mail Squirrels raid our bird feeders, bury thousands of nuts, leap between trees, and somehow seem to outsmart nearly every obstacle we put in their way. But just how remarkable are they? In this episode of Naturally Scott, Scott Harris sits down with squirrel expert John Koprowski of the University of Wyoming to explore an animal nearly everyone knows—but few of us truly appreciate. John has spent much of his career studying squirrels, a family that includes more than 300 species spread across much of the world. Their extraordinary success comes from an impressive combination of intelligence, memory, athleticism, adaptability, and senses finely tuned to finding food and avoiding becoming somebody else's dinner.  In this episode: 🐿️ Why squirrels make such great gateways into the natural world 🥜 How squirrels remember where they've buried thousands of nuts 👃 The astonishing role smell plays in finding food—and other squirrels 🌳 How squirrels can leap 20 feet between branches and survive enormous falls 🦅 The constant battle to avoid hawks, foxes, coyotes, snakes, and other predators 👶 How mother squirrels carry their babies—and John's unforgettable encounter with one protective mom 🏡 Why squirrels have become so successful living alongside humans Scott also confesses something that may get him thrown out of the birding community: he actually enjoys watching squirrels raid his feeders. And John explains why those seemingly impossible squirrel-proofing challenges reveal just how perfectly adapted these little mammals really are.  Funny, fascinating, and filled with stories, this conversation might just convince you to stop fighting your backyard squirrels and start watching them.

  8. Aug 13

    E73 Naturally Scott Adventures – Burrowing Owls: Florida’s Tiny Underground Raptors 🦉🌴

    Send us Fan Mail Owls are usually creatures of forests, trees, and darkness. Burrowing Owls break just about every one of those rules. In this edition of Naturally Scott Adventures, Scott Harris heads to Cape Coral, Florida, a city that calls itself the “Burrowing Owl Capital of the World”—and makes a pretty convincing case. Unlike most owls, these tiny raptors live underground, spend much of their day out in the open, and have become remarkably comfortable sharing their neighborhoods with people.  One of Scott’s favorite places to watch them is the Pelican Baseball Complex, where roughly 20 burrows sit just beyond the center-field fence. Around Cape Coral, their burrows are protected by simple PVC markers, allowing people to watch and photograph the owls while giving the birds space to go about their lives.  In this episode: 🦉 Why Burrowing Owls are unlike any other American owl ⚾ Watching owls from the outfield of a baseball game 🌴 Why Cape Coral may be the best place in America to see them 🪲 How they hunt everything from beetles and grasshoppers to reptiles and rodents ☀️ Why male Burrowing Owls can become bleached by the Florida sun 🐣 The irresistible experience of watching an owl family outside its burrow 🐍 How baby Burrowing Owls can produce a remarkably convincing rattlesnake-like sound Scott also shares other places to find Burrowing Owls around the country and explains why Cape Coral offers such an unusual opportunity to spend time at eye level with one of America’s most charismatic little raptors.

See All (80)

4.5
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

At least once a week, I’ll bring you the very best of America’s spectacular world of nature — from birds to mammals, to reptiles and amphibians. From soaring mountains to endless plains, from rugged coastlines to rivers and streams.  Each episode will feature an expert guest — a ranger, a researcher, a birder, or an adventurer — someone who has seen what we want to see and been where we want to go. 

Information

  • Creator
    Scott
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    80
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 NaturallyScott
  • Show Website
    NaturallyScott

You Might Also Like