From atop his perch on the skeleton of a long dead saguaro cactus, a Phainopepla issues forth his sweet, single-note call. The ebony feathers of this silky flycatcher shine under the early morning sun and his red eyes glow like tiny coals. He is but a winter resident of this globally rare desert ecosystem where ancient ironwood trees serve as a habitat-modifying keystone species. The oldest of these Sonoran Desert specialties sprouted before the first Europeans landed at Plymouth Rock, before Michelangelo began work on the Sistine Chapel, even before King John of England granted protections laid out in the Magna Carta at Runnymede. Some of these trees are estimated to have begun their long lives a thousand years ago. Phainopeplas have been overwintering here for longer than that.
He is not the only bird here. A small flock of Gamble’s Quail scratches sandy soil in search of seeds remaining from those scattered earlier for them. A Gila Woodpecker picks away at an orange half and a little mustard-headed Verdin works its way through interlocking spines of a teddy bear cholla. This is the home of Harris’ Hawks and Gila monsters, rattlesnakes and jackrabbits. Anna’s Hummingbirds live here all year around.
Sadly, as with so many places throughout our world, we humans have destroyed much of the best of it. Thirsty crops like pecans and cotton were cultivated here for decades. The trees and cotton plants are gone now, leaving a hard packed, barren land – scorched under summer’s unforgiving sun.
The Sonoran Desert covers approximately 100,000 square miles and includes the southwestern quadrant of Arizona, southeastern California, most of the Baja peninsula, and much of the state of Sonora, Mexico. It is lush compared to most other deserts. Vegetation, dominated by desert ironwoods, saguaro cacti and palo verde trees, is packed so tightly in undisturbed areas that it is impossible to move through it.
And it is beautiful. There are few leaves on these drought-tolerant plants, and those there are, with the exception of towering cottonwoods found along riparian zones, are tiny to reduce transpiration of life giving moisture. Colors are soft greens and gray-greens with an occasional red-brown mistletoe draped from a host plant.
Harris’s Hawk, one of North America’s most beautiful raptors, occur in semiarid brushlands of southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. They live in family groups of three or more individuals which allows them to engage in cooperative hunting.
Although there is not much to cheer about under the current economic conditions, one of the benefits for birds in Arizona is that clawing up this spectacular habitat for housing developments and strip malls has ground to a halt. At least it has for the time being. When things turn around, let’s all hope future development will be limited to those regions already ruined by agriculture. That way, we can save the best of what’s left for our children and their children to enjoy.