by Dan True GILA MOUNTAIN HUMMERS
Want to see massive numbers of hummingbirds? Then travel to the Gila Mountains of southwestern New Mexico.
The area isn 't as well-known as other hotspots like southeastern Arizona or the Gulf Coast of Texas, but it's a place hummingbirds can't resist.
Mapmakers who followed early explorers into the rugged Rocky Mountains in the late 1800s were the first to notice the profusion of hummingbirds in the area. They were impressed enough to name one place "Hummingbird Saddle" and another "Hummingbird Springs."
The Continental Divide is responsible for creating a near-perfect hummingbird environment. Because mountains making up the Divide's spine rise higher than others in the Rocky Mountain chain, they generally receive more snow and rain than neighboring mountains. Spring snowmelt nourishes a lush, unparalleled flower and insect crop. In other words, the Divide becomes the most food-laden highway for incoming migrants. After those birds breed and raise their young in riparian valleys branching from the Divide, the Southwest's July and August monsoon rains produce a new flower and insect highway that adults and juveniles use on their return flight to their wintering grounds in Mexico. These elements combine to make the Divide the country's No. 1 hummingbird migration route.
Many hummingbirds follow the Divide into Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Canada and Alaska. However, because New Mexico is closer to Mexico, a majority choose to stop there rather than expend the energy and time necessary to continue north. The Divide serpentines through New Mexico's Gila Mountains north of Silver City . Here the chain is a broad clump of mountains interlaced with swift, cold streams that form habitats profuse with flowers.
My suspicions that the Gilas were prime hummingbird country were con- firmed when I came to a place 26 miles north of Silver City, at the junction of twisting mountain Highways 15 and 35. At an isolated lodge nestled in the flower- dotted Sapillo Valley, I found 3,000-plus hummingbirds being fed by Jim and Linda Galloway. The Galloways operate a small, rustic motel/restaurant called Grey Feathers Lodge. At the peak of the hummingbird season, Jim and Linda mix more than four gallons of sugar water daily to keep 40 large eight-port feeders filled.
While watching the birds from the motel's porch, the curious little rascals buzzed around, poking their soft, warm tongues into my ears, nose, mouth and the pink corners of my eyes. I had never seen or heard so many hummingbirds.
The Galloways have been feeding hummingbirds for only three years, but the species count has climbed to 11. Black-chinneds and Broad-taileds nest in trees surrounding the lodge, and Magnificents and Blue-throateds are suspected nesters.
Many people feed Sapillo Valley's hum- mingbirds. Hummingbird expert Dr. Bill Calder of the University of Arizona banded a record 230 hummingbirds in one day at the home of Dave and Anne Seymour, just a mile and a half above Grey Feathers Lodge. In ten days, Calder and his wife, Lorene, captured and banded a record 964 hummers. In his 25 years of hummingbird banding throughout America and Mexico, Calder has banded more hummingbirds in less time in Sapillo Valley than at any other location. That's why the Calders return each spring and fall. Returns from birds he has banded in Sapillo Valley have come from every cardinal direction and caused him to refer to the area as a "crossroads of westem hummingbird migration."
In Silver City, many residents feed the hummingbirds. Ralph Fisher feeds an estimated 2,000 hummingbirds and went through 150 pounds of sugar last year.
Swarms of hummingbirds visit feeders in the small ghost mining community of Mogollon, 40 hummingbird miles northwest of Sapillo Valley. Gift shop owner Dan Ostler recalls a birder who was wrapping up a personal Southwest hummingbird tour. He had included Mogollon on his itinerary and, after seeing all the hummingbirds there, he said, "Why would anyone go elsewhere to see hummingbirds?"
Gila Mountain hummingbirds have remained relatively undiscovered partly because Silver City has no jet service, is not near a large metorpolitan area and is 60 miles off Interstate 10. Buit if you make the effort to come out, you'll see much more than hummingbirds. The US Forest Service rocrds list more than 300 speices of birds in the Gila Mountain/Silver City area. The best time to see Sapillo Valley's hummingbirds is between mid-July and September.
I have visited every hummingbird hotspot in Arizona, California and Texas, and I have to agree with that lone birder in Mogollon. The Gila Mountains probably have more massive numbers of hummingbirds than any place on the planet.
Dan True is the author of Hummingbirds of North America, published by the University of New Mexico Press. He is an aviator and former weatherman for the Albuquerque and Amarillo, Texas markets. He and his wife, Diane, write extensively about hummingbirds. Visit their web site to learn more.
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