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SCV Outdoor Report

SCV Outdoor Report: Scattered Near And Far…

Who has not stopped to observed wind-bourn seeds? As a child growing up in Wisconsin, I watched my father carefully break open dry milkweed pods. I remember laughing with delight as a gust of wind picked up and carried away those silky, parachute-like seeds. Some seeds landed near my feet, but others travelled further than my eye could see. As ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: A Little Something To Chew On…

By Wendy Langhans Imagine trying to eat corn-on-the-cob without teeth.  Or biting into a juicy dill pickle.  Or munching on a bag of trail mix.  Not so easy, is it?  Teeth are a tool we take for granted – until they stop working.  And every tool requires maintenance to keep it working properly. Eastern Grey squirrels are omnivores who feed ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: A Malodorous Plant

By Wendy Langhans At least that’s what the field guide says about “Stinking Gourd“.  The reality is much worse.  Imagine a smell that’s a cross between dirty gym socks and a skunk.  No wonder the botanical name is Cucurbita foetidissima.  The Latin root foetidus gives us the English word fetid (TO STINK) and, as any musician knows, issimo means UTMOST.  ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Must Go Faster…

By Wendy Langhans What is it about sport cars and speed?  For years, automotive engineers have tried to pack the maximum amount of horsepower in the minimum amount of space.  Now recent studies suggest a design enhancement that might provide a few more miles per hour – feathers. Birds leave a wake of turbulence in the air, just like this ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Slip Sliding Away

By Wendy Langhans Earlier this week, while making a right turn on to McBean Parkway, the unexpected happened – the rear end of my car hydroplaned.  Just a bit.  Not unmanageable.  But a wake-up call nonetheless.  You see, the rain, combined with the oil and grease that had accumulated over the dry summer months, created a thin, slippery film that ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Hole-y Dirt

By Wendy Langhans I learned a lot by playing in a sandbox when I was a child.  I particularly remember pouring buckets of water over the imaginary landscape.  It was fascinating to watch the sand change color as it soaked up the water, much like our kitchen sponge turned bright red as it soaked up my spilled cherry Kool-Aid.  I ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Watching Dragonflies

By Wendy Langhans One morning early last week, I was sitting on the front porch slurping a cup of hot coffee.  It was o’dark hundred, way too early for civilized folks to be up and about.  With my eyes half open, I watched two dragonflies, darting back and forth, like runway models strutting and holding a pose.  Their movements were ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Spontaneous Combustion

By Wendy Langhans The Guiberson fire, which is now burning in Ventura County near Fillmore and Moorpark, was possibly caused by spontaneous combustion in a manure pile. I know it sounds like a bad joke, but could it possibly be true? Can spontaneous combustion actually occur? And if so, how? Photo courtsey of Chris Hoefflin’s. It’s true. Fires have been ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: A Tarantula Walks Into A Bar

By Wendy Langhans Last week, a friend shared her photos from a trip to the wineries around Santa Barbara.  She included a few photos of a tarantula she found in a winery patio.  This reminded me of the classic opening line to a joke:  a (fill-in-the-blank) walks into a bar…  I wonder if any of these jokes would work with ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Pyrocumulus Clouds

By Wendy Langhans It looked both ominous and somehow familiar – the pyrocumulus clouds that appeared over our Santa Clarita valley almost two weeks ago.  It certainly caught my attention, enough so that I went home and grabbed my camera. It was a pyrocumulus cloud, created by the Station fire.  Pyrocumulus clouds get their name from their shape (“cumulus” means “heap” in ...

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