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SCV Outdoor Report

Santa Clarita Outdoor Report: “Raspberry Red, Lemon Yellow and Orange Orange”

As we move into the beginnings of the rainy season, our sunsets are becoming more colorful.  They remind me of the early Twix cereal commercials, the ones with the “silly rabbit” singing “Raspberry red, lemon yellow and orange orange”?  As a child, I was drawn to those colorful Trix packages in the cereal aisle.  But as an adult, I’m much ...

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Santa Clarita Outdoor Report, Best Of: Collecting Dust

Thanksgiving is in two weeks…but for many people… the preparation has already begun. Inviting family & friends, menu planning, grocery shopping, cooking and CLEANING.  At our house, it’s time to do a bit of dusting.  It’s amazing how quickly dust can collect on the furniture. That’s also true for the dust that collects on other living things. Take butterflies, for ...

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SCV Outdoor Report Best Of: Twitter Principles

It was the pun that first caught my attention – “Twitter Principles of Social Networking Increase Family Success in Nesting Birds”.  OK, so it wasn’t a great pun.  But it does illustrate that since the first “tweet” was sent on March 21, 2006, tweeting (among humans, not just birds) has become so popular that now even scientists are making puns about ...

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Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Speed Of Sound

What do bats and toothed whales have in common?  Certainly not size, not habitat, and not even how they get from one place to another.  But they both hunt using sound waves to locate their prey, a technique known as echolocation.  A recent report from the University of Southern Denmark concludes “that bats and toothed whales produce signals for echolocation ...

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Santa Clarita Outdoor Report: Shifty Eyes, Beady Eyes, Bat An Eye

Shifty eyes, beady eyes, bat an eye – we have many ways to describe how our eyes express our emotions and character.  But we come at this from the perspective of an animal with forward-facing eyes.  What if we were creatures with lateral-facing eyes, eyes at the sides of our heads?  What would change?  What would stay the same?   ...

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Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Oak Tale

This Valley Oak tree at the Bridgeport Marketplace was a least 150 years old when it collapsed last April.  Put in the context of U.S. history, it was ancient – a mere sapling when Lincoln was president.  But put in the context of its own species, with a lifespan of about 300-400 years – it was a middle-aged tree. Photo ...

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Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Contrarian Wildflower

“Hoary Fuchsia” is a contrarian wildflower.  For starters, it’s a contradiction in terms – a combination of words whose meanings are in conflict with one another.  The word hoary means “having grey or white hair”, while fuchsia means “a bright reddish-purple color”.   What were those botanists thinking when they named that flower? But when you take a closer look, perhaps ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Superpowered Rose Petals

When I think of something soft and delicate, rose petals come to mind.  It could be from a childhood memory – the scent of my mother’s hand lotion.  Or perhaps it could be the memory of a flowergirl scattering rose petals along the bride’s path.  But rose petals may be tougher than they look.  Maybe they even posess their very ...

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Best Of SCV Outdoor Report: Sniff Sniff

For those of you who remember the pre-cellphone era: have you ever scanned a crowd to find someone?  Perhaps a friend you were supposed to meet.  Perhaps a child who wandered away from your group?  Can you remember how your eyes transitioned from a “wide area scan” to a narrow focus when you thought you’d found them?  Well, it turns ...

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Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Moving Too Fast…

We don’t always see what’s going on around us, especially if it’s moving too fast.  For example, if you’re reading this on a computer screen, what you are seeing is being redrawn at a rate of 60-75 times per second (60-75 Hz).  Yet we perceive a constant image; why don’t we see the screen flickering?  That’s because the rate of ...

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