As firefighters continue to gain control over the Sand Fire in the Santa Clarita Valley, many residents have been left wondering about the long-term environmental impacts the blaze will have on local wildlife. Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking KHTS Santa Clarita News Alerts delivered right to your inbox. Initially sparked by an unknown cause on Friday, the Sand Fire burned nearly ...

Do you remember playing dodge ball as a kid?  Do you remember ducking and weaving as you tried to avoid the large rubber balls flying at you from every direction?  Or how about hitting baseballs? How long did it take you to learn keep your eye on the ball?  Neuroscientists describe our “ability to select and respond to one sensory ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

  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. ...

Wendy Langhans’ Santa Clarita Valley Outdoor Report, “The Ants Go Marching,” answers questions about flower pollination.  In part II, Wendy answers the “why” ants go marching. Two weeks ago, we took a closer lookat the pollination of flowering plants by ants.  We explored three reasons why it rarely occurs.  This week, I’d like to address the follow-up question – if ...

Last Saturday, as I was teaching a class of volunteer docents about our local wildflowers, one of the docents asked, “What about ants?  I see them on flowers all the time. Do they pollinate flowers?”  I smiled (a bit sheepishly, I might add) and said I would get back to her.  And here is what I found…. In the natural ...

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 ...