Palm Desert & La Quinta, CA (2/27/2018)

I don't often visit zoos, having very mixed feelings about them.  While zoos do a lot of good, such as educating the public and helping protect endangered species, the animals usually look bored or just plain miserable.  Further, photography rarely looks natural, since walls, fences and glass always seem to affect the photos.  Even if I manage to get something that looks almost natural, I still know it wasn't, and that lowers my feeling for it.

Despite all that, I did visit the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, mostly to see a few animals I will never see in the wild.  In that respect, it was a successful visit.  Unfortunately, my "wildlife" lens chose this time to malfunction, leaving me to do the best I could with a much shorter lens.  As a result, some of the photos aren't as sharp as I would like, but they may still be of interest to you.

Leaving camp, I noticed there had been overnight snow on the Santa Rosa and San Bernardino Mountains, while only a light, quick drizzle of rain had happened in the valley.

Wart Hog

 Striped Hyena

Addax

Leopard

Meerkat

African Wild Dog

Kennec Fox

Arabian Oryx

Hummingbird

Mountain Lion

Caracal

Badger

Mexican Gray Wolf

Cheetah

Of course there were many others, but I don't want to overdo it here. 

Since I was close to La Quinta and had not yet visited that town, this was a good opportunity.  In my working years, I enjoyed several trips to some of the famous golf courses there.  Now I can't even get through the gate of PGA West unless I have a Real Estate Agent with me.  My only stop this time was to check out the St. Francis of Assissi Catholic Church.

 This is a typical entry gate for the country club communities in the Coachella Valley.  Security seems to be a big issue all over Southern California.  Homes that aren't in a gated community usually have a wall or fence around them with a locked gate.