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Outdoor Report

Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Superhero Trees

By MRCA Naturalist Carolyn Everhart This week’s SCV Outdoor Report draws parallels between trees and superheroes.  Learn the benefits of trees and how tree bark and tree leaves play a role in simple trees being superhero trees. I love superheroes. I grew up watching them on TV and the recent boom of superhero movies has been great fun to watch. ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Hitting The Trail With Fido

Written by MRCA Naturalist Mieko Alley Hiking with a partner is more than just good company, it is a time-old understanding between hiking buddies: I will look out for you, you look out for me. This summer, MRCA Rangers have had to make a few unique rescues in Caballero Canyon and Towsley Canyon. Both rescues were a result of a ...

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Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Wendy’s Diner

This is a “Best of Wendy Langhans” Report Restaurant menu’s vary from basic comfort food to fancy signature dishes.  But plain or fancy, most restaurants offers seasonal specials.  Just imagine June without strawberry pie or October without pumpkin pie.  The same is true at Wendy’s Diner, the name we have given to the bird feeders on our front porch.  With ...

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Santa Clarita Outdoor Report: Secrets In The Scat

By:  Mieko Alley This week’s Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report fills us in on the secret details of scat.  Scat shape and appearance, marking territory, evidence of diet, and are just part of the lessons of scat. So get on out there and see what scat you see while hiking. If you’re a fan of crime dramas, you’ve probably realized ...

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Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Balancing Act

Dr. Francis Collins, the currect Director of the NIH, is one of my heroes because he is both a top-notch scientist and a Christian.  I like his perspective on dealing with opposing points of view: “One must dig deeply into opposing points of view in order to know whether your own position remains defensible. Iron sharpens iron.” And when it ...

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Santa Clarita Outdoor Report: The “Day Tripper” Wolf

In this week’s Santa Clarita Outdoor Report, Wendy Langhans tells us more on the extirpation or local extinction of Gray Wolves in California, and the possible comeback with a “Day Tripper Wolf” known as OR7. Last week, we spoke about the “extirpation” (local extinction) of Gray Wolves in California.  We have anecdotal evidence that they once lived here in Southern ...

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SCV Outdoor Report: Extinct or Extirpated?

This week’s SCV Outdoor Report by Wendy Langhans tells us the difference between extinct and extirpated.  Passenger pigeons, dinosaurs, gray wolves: vanished from earth or gone from a region? What is the difference between extinction and extirpation?  My first thought would be – that depends on “how long ago” it happened.  After all, dinosaurs became extinct about 65.95 million years ...

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Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Eggs-cetera

  Earlier this week, as I was watering my potted plants on the front porch, I discovered a new resident had moved in.  There, smack dab in the middle of my sage plant, I spotted a nest with two small eggs.  Later, I saw a Mourning Dove sitting on the nest, her two brown eyes carefully watching my every move. ...

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Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report: Curve Ball

Nature comes in various shapes – some straight and some curved.  We all know how to create a curved shape.  Children use the palms of their hands to shape cookie dough into round balls.  Pastry chefs use a rolling pin to shape a round and flaky pie crust.  And pitchers put a “topspin” on a baseball to throw a curve ...

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Santa Clarita Outdoor Report: Tales From The Vienna Woods

Johann Strauss II composed his famous waltz, “Tales from the Vienna Woods” in 1868.  However, our “tale” for this week has little to do with waltzing or the Strauss family.  But it does have to do with music…specifically bird song…and research from the city of Vienna and its nearby Vienna Woods. As anyone who’s ever walked along a city street ...

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