Discover Nature (Missouri Department of Conservation)

As we head into the middle of summer, keep an eye out in the woods for ripening blackberries.

Spend much time near a Missouri waterbody in summer, and chances are you’ll spot see reptiles galore including water snakes basking on a sunny day.

Take a canoe out on a local pond or stream this week, and you’ll likely encounter Spiny softshell turtles.

The deep, sonorous call of Missouri’s largest frog is distinct. This week on Discover Nature, we discover Missouri's official state amphibian, the American bullfrog. 

If you’ve spent any time out in nature in the last week you may have noticed a well-protected reddish fruit starting to ripen now. This week on Discover Nature, we search for wild raspberries.

Spring storms bring the threat of damaging wind, hail, flooding, and erosion, but they also restore life to the landscape providing nutrients to plants and soil, and drinking-water for wildlife. This week, on Discover Nature, we celebrate May as American Wetlands Month.

What do fawnfoot, monkey face and fat pocketbook all have in common? They are a few of the fun names of Missouri’s 69 freshwater mussel species.

So much in the natural world is ephemeral especially in the spring. This week on Discover Nature we look and listen for buzzing signs of the season.

As you hit the road this spring, keep an eye out for Missouri residents at special risk this time of year:  this week on Discover Nature, we hit the brakes for turtles on the move.

In Missouri, striped skunks are relatively common.  Harder to find, are Eastern spotted skunks. These smaller skunks have black fur with white stripes, and spots.

Spotted skunks inhabit open prairies, brushy areas and cultivated land, favoring cover under a brushy field border, fencerow or vegetated gully between their dens and foraging areas. 

They mate in late winter and give birth from April to July.

Skunks are good mousers and help control insects, thus they are an asset around farms… As scavengers, skunks help clean up the woods.

This week on Discover Nature, listen for wild turkeys gobbling in Missouri woods and grasslands.

Wildflowers and warm weather signify the arrival of spring in Missouri and one of the state’s largest, heaviest wild mammals enjoys the season as much as we do. This week on Discover Nature, we recognize National Bear Awareness Month.

There are almost 1,000 different kinds of bats. Bats eat mostly insects, but when insects are not available during winter, bats in Missouri survive our colder months by hibernating or migrating to warmer places. 

Spring weather settling-in across Missouri triggers breeding activities for many frogs.  This week on Discover Nature, we’ll learn about the Boreal Chorus Frog. 

Listen in prairies, and along the grassy edges of marshes and farm ponds, for these small gray or tan frogs – three-quarters to one-and-a-half inches long – with three wide stripes down the back.  They begin breeding in late February, with their raspy, vibrating call peaking in mid-April – a sound similar to running a fingernail over the teeth of a pocket comb.