Same here, I found that all the goodies are invisible until you click on them after which they are perfectly visable, and seem to remain so. Just click randomly infront of your scout and you'll see what he's about to pick up. 

I think that it might be related to the sight skill (pair of eyes).  My soveriegn they only show up when he's next to them, but my scout seems to pick them up from further away.  I'll test this in a bit to see if that is accurate.

I noticed huts would show up behind me as I was exploring, sometimes during a multi-square move or sometimes a turn or 2 later.