Discovery

We had some errands to run today to a totally different section of Indio, CA today. This is desert out here. Real desert. Every so often there are areas filled with palm trees and housing developments. Palm Springs proper, in my opinion, is older, as is Indio, but Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indian Wells look newer. La Quinta and Indian Wells are closer to the mountains (why haven't I taken pictures?) and by the looks of it, the areas, have $$.

On the more warehouse-ish side of Indio, driving between to RV stores (looking for outside light covers), we noticed a couple standing just outside of some water reeds in some sort of riparian area with binoculars. Hmm, what's that all about? Moments later, we passed a sign for Coachella Valley Wild Bird Center, which is a wild bird rescue center. What? Out here in the desert?

A quarter of a mile, a Uturn, and we pulled into the parking lot. From the front of the building, it didn't look like much. As we approached the door, it was opened by a very nice woman that said, "Come on in. I have to let you in because we have a bird out and I need to close the door."

Once inside, we noticed Big cages against the walls of the trailer. I immediately fell in love. Screech Owls, who knew they were so Beautiful??? Why do I not carry a camera with me EVERYWHERE? Yes, there were dead mice in the cages for lunch, but, hey, I just couldn't focus on that.

Well, we are going back, with binoculars for the open water area, and a camera for the outside cages which hold recovering Great Horned Owls, Barn Owls, Perigrin Falcons, Red-Tailed Hawks, and more.

We had planned on going back in this morning, camera in hand, but I woke up with a nasty cold. Boo! We'll make it back in there, but maybe not until we make our way back from AZ.