Santa Clarita Public Libraries will host Tin Can art craft events at all three of the Santa Clarita branches July 23-25 at 5:30-6:30 p.m. The Valencia Public Library will host the event Tuesday, 23 at 23743 West Valencia Blvd., Santa Clarita, CA 91355. Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library will host...

With their striking orange wings laced with black lines and bordered with white dots, monarch butterflies and their annual migration south from the United States and Canada to California and Mexico have become the stuff of legend. But habitat loss threatens the future of not just the butterflies, but...

“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle How are fish and butterflies similar? Superficially, this seems like a silly question. Fish are vertebrates. They have an internal skeleton and a “backbone” and live in water, whereas butterflies are arthropods...

Life in the wild is difficult with larger animals wanting to eat smaller animals. In prehistoric days, people, too, were prey for the larger predators. We were even prey from members of our own species, but we could fight back – we could punch, kick and bite. We could hide or run away. We even developed...

A butterfly’s coloring is impressive, similar to that of many paintings. The pattern of a butterfly’s coloring is created by two distinct processes of color combined with the art form of mosaics. Mosaic painting and patterns are made up of multiple small, colored stones or other objects carefully...

Residents of the Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding communities are noticing a wealth of small white butterflies this year. Many people think these are moths – but they are not. They are butterflies of the Pierid family. And they are not a single species. They are actually two different species,...

In my role as a docent at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center, it is not uncommon to hear someone say there were far more insects, be they butterflies or bees or virtually any insect, when they were growing up, than now. I would echo those thoughts – whether growing up on Long Island, N.Y., as I did,...

Monarchy is not taking over. No king, queen or emperor is in Coronado; I am referring to the large, migratory orange and black butterflies that are spending the winter there in the eucalyptus grove. I try to keep my articles about nature in Santa Clarita, but this is such a wonderful experience. It’s...