Huimilpan

I had an excellent day of birding around the small town of Huimilpan in the South-west of Queretaro today.  The town boasted some interesting habitats I wanted to check out - some promising looking reservoirs, river canyons and some well wooded mountains.

On the walk out of town, I was quickly into typical scrub birds - Canyon Towhee, Lark Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow, Curve-billed Thrasher, Cactus Wren, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Ladderback, Broad-billed Hummingbird.

As I approached the reservoir (below), I started seeing a number of pairs of Eastern Meadowlarks, as well as small groups of Vesper Sparrows.  A flash of black and white also heralded my first ever Lark Bunting.

Huimilpan Reservoir, with the 'Forested Mountain' in the background

The reservoir held a good amount of water, and some really interesting ducks.  Straight away I noticed large numbers of Gadwall (40+). Usually, I only see the odd pair in Queretaro.  Even better, though, were at least 8 Buffleheads, including two males.

Buffleheads

Also on the water were Green-winged Teals, Blue-winged Teals, American Wigeons, Ring-necked Duck (1), Ruddy Duck, Mexican Duck and Northern Shovelers, as well as Eared Grebes and 1 Pied-billed Grebe.

Cow

After leaving the reservoir, I followed the 'Canyon River' south towards the 'Forested Mountain'.  The canyon held some pretty decent wildlife.  I disturbed lots of hares, and a bit of pishing brought in some difficult to see species, such as Bushtits, Black-and-white Warbler, Black-throated Grey Warbler and Wilson's Warbler. 

Vermilion Flycatcher

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, pished in

 Leaving the river, I started to blast up the forested mountain, climbing through nice smelling pine-oak woodland.  It was pretty steep and the pine needles made the ground extremely slippy.  Needless to say, I 'came a cropper' on numerous occasions.

Good views from the top, though.

Views from the 'Forested Mountain'

A few decent birds as well, not least a pair of White-tailed Hawks.

White-tailed Hawk

 There wasn't as much as I hoped for in the woods (it was during the hottest part of the day), but I still scored with White-eared Hummingbird, Greater Peewee, Hermit Warbler and Townsend's Warbler.

White-eared Hummingbird

Ended the day with 70 species, which is a fair whack.