Clouds and sand dunes~Nature Notes~101311

I love to see clouds over our desert mountains.  We don't have clouds here that often.  This week is CLEAR and up in the 90's and 100's (again...sigh...), but last week, we had a couple of cloudy days and I headed out to school with my camera.  I drove by a street next to the freeway that has a bunch of dead tamarisk trees (which are a REAL PEST), but don't they look awesome against the sand dunes and clouds?  Some of these are on the border of the Coachella Valley Preserve, but I never see any birds or animals out there.  Lizards, perhaps, but certainly no birds or ducks.  Hmmmm....I'll have to investigate this further.  Nature Notes for October 13, 2011.