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Cave Buttes

Cave Buttes is part of the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve roughly located North of the 101 and East of I-17. There are two main access points, the east one is at Cave Creek Road and Jomax, and the west entry is at N 7th St and Cave Buttes Dam Rd. While there are other access points, these were the main two used during my birding surveys. The Maricopa County Flood Control District restricts public access by locked gates where vehicles enter. I gained access through Dr. Brian Sullivan who has a permit to conduct studies on Desert Tortoises and Horned Lizards, teach classes of Ecology and Herpetology at ASU West, as well as record biodiversity of frogs, lizards, snakes, and plants during his decade-long access to this site. The study site is known as the Union Hills (Sullivan, et.al. 2016) area of Cave Buttes. I accompanied Brian and Elizabeth Sullivan during their assessments of the Desert Tortoises and Regal Horned Lizards and occasionally during an Ecology class.

The habitat (1) is mostly Arizona Upland and Creosote-Bursage Flats. Cacti species are numerous and most abundant on the higher elevation (650 m) hill slopes: Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), Buckhorn Cholla (Cylinodropuntia acanthocarpa), Jumping (Teddy Bear) Cholla (Cylinodropuntia bigelovii), Desert Christmas Cactus (Cylinodropuntia leptocaulis), Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii), Arizona Fishhook Cactus (Mammillaria grahamii), and Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus). Hillsides and washes (at 350 m) are dominated by Small Leaf (Parkinsonia microphylla) and Blue Palo Verdes (Parkinsonia florida), Acacia (Senegalia (Acacia) greggii), Ironwood (Olneya tesota), Anderson's (Lycium andersonii), and Berlandier's (Lycium berlandieri) Wolfberries, and Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens). Lower elevations away from washes have Creosote (Larrea tridentata), Bursage (Atriplex canescens), Cattle (Atriplex polycarpa) and 4 Wing (Atriplex canescens) Saltbushes, Triangle Leaf Bursage (Ambrosia deltoidea), and Burrobush (Ambrosia dumosa). However, plant species are not necessarily confined to higher/lower elevations or open desert/washes.

I started surveying birds in March of 2019 and have continued joining the Sullivans once a month from this start date until present. My goal is to complete a bar graph in eBird. While this is certainly not an ideal approach to doing bird surveys, short of me obtaining my own permit to enter the restricted areas of Cave Buttes, it was the only way to work in the context of Brian's research. We have currently documented 101 species in eBird (https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=1900&eyr=2022&bmo=1&emo=12&r=L10439506&personal=true) while Brian and Elizabeth have observed another 2 dozen species. The bar graph will be complete in February of 2023 assuming our schedules align so I can survey the missing weeks.

Clearly timing is everything in terms of seeing bird species that are migrants or rain pool influenced. For example, on one day after summer rains in 2021, I added 9 new species to the list. If my survey came too long after a rain (winter or summer), I usually missed aqautic species. The other clear deficit in species observed are warblers. I have documented only 6 species (Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Wilson's, Orange-Crown, Black-throated Gray, and Lucy's) when there are likely twice that many that come through this large area.

(1) BRIAN K. SULLIVAN, AUDREY K. OWENS, KEITH O. SULLIVAN, AND ELIZABETH A. SULLIVAN. Spatial Ecology of Sonoran Desert Tortoises (Gopherus morafkai): I. Fidelity in Home Range, Refuge Use and Foraging Behavior. Journal of Herpetology, Vol. 50, No. 4, 509–519, 2016.