Birding in Southeastern Arizona: Saguaro Forests and Sonoran Desert Scrub

Continuing our birding adventure through southeastern Arizona, we headed north from the Huachucas, leaving the Sky Islands behind us to travel across a sea of saguaros.

We spent one night at Saguaro National Park and the next at Lost Dutchman State Park, solely because I wanted to truly experience the Sonoran Desert.  This, of course, can't be done from inside an air conditioned vehicle on paved roads or the comfort of a hotel room.  To really experience this magnificent desert, one must feel sun on skin and smell creosote bush in the heat; one must hear the crunch of gravel underfoot, the soft tremolo of Lesser Nighthawks rise as darkness falls, the mournful cries of a pack of coyotes breaking the utter stillness of a desert night.

And so, as the sun began to sink low over the western hills (and the temperature began to become tolerable) we rolled out our tent beneath the vast desert sky and prepared to experience the desert.

Sunset over our camp near Saguaro National Park

Earlier in the day, while the sun was still high and hot, we set out to drive the scenic unpaved loop road not far from the visitor center at Saguaro West.  We noted a few short nature trails we could manage in the 100 degree afternoon heat, and I kept a mental list of the bird species I was targeting in this area: the bizarre Pyrrhuloxia, the yellow-faced Verdin, the unique Sonoran Purple Martin, the yellow-tinged Gilded Flicker.

A Curve-billed Thrasher, coping with the heat by panting

We stopped at Signal Hill to hike to the petroglyphs, created by the prehistoric Hohokam people upwards of a thousand years ago.

Petroglyphs at Signal Hill

While Eric soaked in the historical significance of this special place... I looked for birds.

Birding in the saguaros

And I was not disappointed!  A flash of movement caught my eye, and in an instant I had my binoculars trained on a small flock of three Pyrrhuloxias moving through the brush!

My first Pyrrhuloxia!!

Pyrrhuloxia are effectively desert cardinals, closely related to their more familiar and brighter-colored cousins.  They are beautiful, bizarre, and perfectly adapted to the harshness of life in the Southwestern desert scrub.  And they were at the top of my list of "Must See" species!  (I saw them twice, but these are the best photos I could manage.)

Pyrrhuloxia in the thorny desert scrub of Saguaro National Park

On our way to the campground, we stopped to walk another short nature trail, searching for the flickers I had heard there earlier.  Our search paid off and we spotted several Gilded Flickers, their yellow wings flashing brilliantly in the golden sunlight as they flew from saguaro to saguaro.  Another lifer!  

Female Gilded Flicker

We rolled into the nearly-deserted campground as the sun began to set and the mild temperatures of dusk made setting up the tent and preparing our evening meal more enjoyable.  This, I know, is why so many desert animals are nocturnal; it's the perfect strategy and something that you can only really appreciate if you're living it!  We stayed up just long enough to hear the evening's first Lesser Nighthawks begin to call from somewhere in the dense desert scrub, then went to sleep on top of our sleeping bags.  

Sunset on the saguaros

The gray predawn and rosy pink dawn hour is my favorite time in the desert.  The world is quiet, still and cool.  Nocturnal creatures are returning home from their nighttime forays and diurnal animals are just waking up to begin a new day.  It's a magical time, as the first birdsong breaks the quiet of the night and the world begins to fade from inky black, to the gentle gray of dawn, to the soft pinks and dazzling gold of sunrise.

A male Gambel's Quail, just outside our tent in the gray light of dawn

A stone's throw from our tent, perched on the very top of a tall saguaro, I spotted a pair of birds in the still-gray predawn light.  It was too dark to tell what they were for certain, but I had a hunch I was looking at a special bird, a pair of Sonoran Purple Martins.  While Purple Martins are well-known cavity nesters across the eastern United States and parts of the Pacific Northwest (you would probably recognize the popular multi-hole martin houses a lot of folks put up in their gardens), the population in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona is unique in that it nests in cavities in saguaro cacti.

Male and female Sonoran Purple Martins

Cavities in saguaros are made by woodpeckers and flickers, but are used by a host of other species as well, including Purple Martins, Elf Owls, Screech Owls and finches.  The insulated hollows inside saguaro cacti provide a comfortable home that can be 15 degrees cooler than the surrounding outside air temperature.

Gila Woodpecker, architect of the saguaro wildlife condos!

Cactus Wrens, on the other hand (or cactus), build their twiggy nests in the sheltering arms of spiny cholla cacti.  It's an excellent defensive strategy, and amazing that they avoid injuring themselves on the spines!  Across the desert Southwest, the harsh call of the Cactus Wren can be heard as the large wrens perch on prominent high points (like the tops of the saguaros) to defend their territory.  To me, the call of the Cactus Wren is one of the distinct voices of the desert.

Cactus Wren

Another sound of the desert is the tremulous "purring" call of the Lesser Nighthawk.   During the early morning and late evening hours, these nifty nightjars can be seen flying low over the desert scrub, long wings flapping in their bouncy, buoyant flight.  We saw them a couple of times, at the campground near Saguaro National Park and again flying over our tent at Lost Dutchman State Park.  They are really fun to watch in flight, as they hunt the skies for flying insects.

Lesser Nighthawks over our camp at Lost Dutchman

By the end of our week in Southeastern Arizona, I had seen over 100 species of birds and tallied 44 "lifers" - numbers I was quite happy with!  But there were still plenty of birds I missed!  Since this was just my first introduction to such a wide and beautiful region bursting with fascinating birds and other wildlife, we really just scratched the surface.

The desert certainly deserves its tough reputation as a barren, harsh, desolate, even dangerous place.  The creatures that live here must be perfectly adapted to this extreme environment, and travelers passing through must take heed!  But there is so much more to the desert than meets the eye at first glance, so much more than unrelenting heat and rock and spiny plants.  There is beauty, and fragility, and such an incredible abundance of life!  There is so much to see and experience and appreciate.

For me, the desert has an undeniable, if not inexplicable, appeal.  Maybe it's the wide open spaces, the quiet, the solitude.  Maybe it's the sunrises, the wildflowers, the unusual birds.  Or maybe, for a girl named after a snow-capped mountain range and raised roaming across the fertile prairies and rocky beaches of Central California, it's just a novelty.  Whatever the reason, I am convinced that the desert southwest is a special place that deserves special consideration.  And I know I will certainly be back!

Our home for the night at Lost Dutchman State Park

In case you missed them, here are links to the first three parts of our birding trip across southeastern Arizona:
Part I: Madera Canyon
Part II: Santa Cruz and San Pedro Rivers
Part III: Huachuca Mountains

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