What to look for in nature in Arizona this March

For most of the low desert, March is the main event. Arizona State Parks says Catalina’s poppies usually appear in March and April and Picacho Peak’s blooms typically begin in early March, with the higher country such as Red Rock State Park near Sedona flowering later in spring, and Saguaro National Park says its blooms are often best in mid to late March. All of that depends on winter rain and on how warm the weeks turn out. The park service says plainly that there is no perfect way to predict any year’s bloom in any one place, and that a true superbloom needs several favorable seasons in a row, so treat every date below as a window, not a promise.

The February guide follows the first poppies and the hummingbird courtship season that leads into this bloom. Please stay on trails: both the parks agency and the park service ask visitors not to pick or trample the flowers.

Possibly, but go early in the month. Arizona Game and Fish has long said the cranes typically arrive in the Sulphur Springs Valley from mid-September to early October and begin to leave around mid-February, with some staying until about the middle of March. By the time the spring equinox arrives most of the big flock is usually on its way north to its breeding grounds. The department tallies the valley’s cranes each winter, so check its news pages or the wildlife area for the latest count.

The January festival season and the arrival story are told in the earlier winter guides; this month is the exit.

Yes, for the late nesters and the second wave. The Southwestern Bald Eagle Management Committee says Arizona eagles lay eggs from December to March, mostly in January and February, and that an egg needs 35 days to hatch. So early March is hatching time for the pairs that laid in late January and February, and the youngest chicks hatch toward the middle of April. The nestlings stay in the nest about 12 weeks, so most do not fledge until May and June.

The reptile season opens by degrees. At Tonto National Monument, east of Phoenix, researchers radio-tracking Gila monsters found them leaving their winter burrows from late March, with the most activity in early April. The monument’s staff reports that they feed on bird eggs such as quail, and on young cottontails, and that the lizards often cross the road below the visitor center parking lot on their way to rocky ground and the damp ground of Cave Wash. In the same study, more than half of the animals met by people ran, took cover or dug deeper rather than standing firm.

Rattlesnakes are active on warm evenings and afternoons now; see the safety notes below.

The South Rim is a regular place, though the best season is later. Grand Canyon National Park says condors can be spotted daily from March through October, with the best viewing mid-April through July, and that the birds often roost on the cliffs and Douglas-fir trees below Bright Angel Lodge from late April through July. In March you are watching for a bird that is mostly at its nest, not roosting in the village.

Because the young are on the way. In southwestern Arizona, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has described a seasonal closure of about three-quarters of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge from mid-March to mid-July to protect the fawning season of the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, the only such herd in the United States. That description comes from older refuge stories, from 2002 to 2006, so confirm the current dates and boundaries with the refuge; its own page says any visit requires a Barry M. Goldwater Range access permit.

March is the last quiet stretch before the Sonoran Desert fills up. The Costa’s hummingbird, a desert breeder that nests late winter and spring, is already here; the Tucson Bird Alliance calls spring a great time to see them before they leave for the coast. Two famous arrivals are just ahead, and March is the time to plan for them.

To follow the bloom they depend on, join the USA National Phenology Network’s Nature’s Notebook, which runs a Flowers for Bats campaign.

March is the month the two Arizonas are furthest apart. NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals show the average March high at Phoenix Sky Harbor at 78.1 °F with a low of 54.5 °F, and at Tucson International at 75.8 °F and 48.0 °F, with only 0.83 and 0.56 inch of precipitation. At Yuma Proving Ground the normal is 79.7 °F and 53.1 °F. Up on the plateau it is winter’s tail end: Flagstaff’s normal is 52.2 °F and 23.8 °F with 15.6 inches of snow, and the Grand Canyon South Rim’s is 53.6 °F and 25.0 °F with 8.1 inches. Show Low sits at 58.0 °F and 31.3 °F with 2.3 inches of snow.

The table below shows when freezing ends. In the lower desert the last freeze is finished by March, but at higher stations a freeze in April or May is normal, so a warm week in March should not send you to plant tender things. Watch for wind: spring storms can cross the state with strong winds, blowing dust in the desert and snow squalls on the Rim. The National Weather Service offices in Phoenix and Flagstaff publish forecasts and fire-weather products; the Flagstaff office covers the national forests, where dry, windy days raise the fire danger before the monsoon.

For your own town, use the Arizona frost dates page. The NOAA Climate Prediction Center issues its three-month outlooks once a month near mid-month; see the latest at cpc.ncep.noaa.gov. Our weather pages explain how to read them, and the cloud guide helps with spring fronts. The Arizona State Climate Office at ASU publishes monthly climate reports with city data.

The days lengthen faster now than at any other time of the year. The table gives sunrise-to-sunset day length for eight Arizona towns on March 1 and March 31. The equinox is March 20 at 1:25 p.m. Arizona time (20:25 UTC), the day and night are close to equal across the globe; our calculations put Phoenix at about 12 hours and 8 minutes of daylight that day. On March 14 the rest of the country moves clocks forward an hour, but Arizona, which lies entirely within one time zone and has exempted itself under the Uniform Time Act, does not. The exception is the Navajo Nation, which does change. From that date Arizona’s clocks match California’s, and the Navajo Nation’s match Utah’s and New Mexico’s. See the daylight tools for any date.

The Moon is new on March 8 and full on March 22, called the Worm Moon, one of the traditional names for the March full moon. The table uses Mountain Standard Time, correct for all of Arizona except the Navajo Nation, where clocks are an hour ahead after March 14. The dark nights around the new moon, roughly March 5 to 11, are the best for faint objects, which brings us to the planets.

• Venus and Mercury before dawn. On March 1 Venus clears the horizon about 115 minutes ahead of the Sun, blazing at magnitude −4.1. Mercury, much fainter, reaches its widest separation from the Sun, 27.6 degrees west, on March 17 (04:20 UTC, which is the night of March 16 in Arizona). It is best seen between about March 8 and 25, rising roughly an hour before sunrise, low in the east-southeast with Venus well above it. Our own calculations put the old crescent Moon near Venus on March 4 and 5, so look east before sunrise on those days.
• Jupiter and Mars in the evening. Jupiter, past its February opposition, is high in Leo in the evening, and our figures show a bright, almost-full Moon coming within about a degree of it on March 18 and 19. Mars creeps closer through the month and ends March 30 roughly four degrees from the giant planet, a wide pairing high in the Arizona sky.
• Saturn’s last evenings. Saturn, in Pisces, sinks fast: by our central-US calculation it still sets 155 minutes behind the Sun at the start of March, 93 minutes behind by the 15th, and it vanishes into the Sun’s glare by April.

Times for planets come from our own calculations and shift by up to half an hour with latitude. There are no major meteor showers in March.

1. Saturday, March 6: “Into the Snake Den” at Picacho Peak State Park, 10 a.m., a 45-minute outdoor talk on desert snakes. The park’s page shows this date; bring water and a hat.
2. Guided bird walks at Catalina State Park. The park’s page lists walks on Sundays and Wednesdays at 7:30 a.m. through May 17, plus Mondays March 8 and 22, each three to four hours, in an Important Bird Area with more than 150 species. Bring binoculars; check the page for any change.
3. Picacho Peak bird walks. The park’s page shows 2027 dates only through February; check with the park for any in March.
4. Havasu National Wildlife Refuge tours. The refuge lists guided tours once a month on the second Tuesday from November to April, 9 to 11 a.m., beginning at the North Dike parking lot; reservations are required, so call the refuge at 928-259-9632.
5. Tonto National Monument. The visitor hours run 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, and guided Upper Cliff Dwelling tours run weekends from November to April by reservation.
6. Join a count. Log birds with eBird, report sightings through Journey North’s hummingbird pages, or track bloom times with Nature’s Notebook. Project FeederWatch runs on a winter-to-spring season; check its page for the end date.
7. Watch from home. Arizona Game and Fish’s Sandhill Crane Cam shows Whitewater Draw.

The nature hub has other states, and your own finds belong in the Naturalist’s Field Journal. Each date here was read from the organizer’s own page in October 2026, so call or check online before you leave home.

• Spring bear hunt. The department’s 2027 spring booklet lists a general bear season from March 19 to April 22 in most units, from the Mogollon Rim and White Mountains to the Sky Islands, for any bear except cubs and sows with cubs. A nonpermit tag is required and hunters must report within 48 hours. Expect hunters in forests where you hike.
• Bison and turkey. A Kaibab Plateau bull-bison hunt runs March 26 to June 3 in units 12A, 12B and 13A. Spring turkey hunts in the department’s 2027 booklet start April 16 in a few units and April 23 or later in most, so March trips are clear of them. Javelina hunts end in February.
• Be easy to see. The Arizona Game and Fish Department’s dove-hunting guidance says hunter orange is not required in Arizona but is recommended near other hunters, so do not count on seeing it. Dress in a bright color on forest trails, and give a dog a bright vest.
• Snakes and lizards. Rattlesnakes become active on warm days. Watch where you put hands and feet, stay on trails, keep dogs leashed, and give snakes and Gila monsters room.
• Snow, ice and wind up high. With a normal low of 23.8 °F at Flagstaff, shaded trails and Rim roads can ice over. Check the Grand Canyon’s conditions page or call 928-638-7496 for weather and roads before an inner-canyon hike.
• Closures. Pusch Ridge bighorn rules run to April 30, and Cabeza Prieta’s pronghorn fawning closure has traditionally begun in mid-March, so check with the refuge. Eagle closures on rivers and lakes stay in force.
• Early heat in the low desert. With normal highs near 80 °F, carry far more water than you think you need; dehydration comes on quietly in dry air.