Sitting Ducks

I had an evening walk around Presa Centenario in Tequisquiapan with Clipperton Project employees Adam Fry and Alan Pfeiffer.  Both were impressed by the beauty of the Presa and the number and diversity of birds that are currently making it their home.

Waders were a little thin on the background, with just 4 Spotted Sandpipers, a flock of 30 Least Sandpipers, 6 Killdeers and about 15 Black-necked Stilts.

Black-necked Stilts

Spotted Sandpiper

Passerines included 2 American Pipits,1 Say's Phoebe and 1 Black Phoebe amongst the commoner stuff.

The highlight, however, was undoubtedly the duck spectacle.  Large flocks of Northern Shovelers and Ruddy Ducks are common here, but today we encountered a huge gathering of Ring-necked Ducks, which harboured many surprises.  In amonst the 300+ Ring-necked Ducks were plenty of Green-winged and Blue-winged Teals, Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, 1 Canvasback, a few Lesser Scaups, 1 Fulvous Whistling Duck, and best of all 2 male Redheads, a new bird for me here in Tequisquiapan.

No chance of good photos unfortunately as the flock was far away and the light dying.  However, here's a few record shots.  The last one gives an idea of the diversity that we saw today at Centenario. In the crop, you can see American Coots, Ruddy Duck, Eared Grebe, Ring-necked Duck, Redhead and Fulvous Whistling Duck...

Redhead

Redhead

Duck Soup

Despite the glorious evening, we also noticed some of the problems faced by this reservoir.  Around the shore was a crazy mix of garbage, including plastic chairs, old boots, medicine bottles and worse.  The quality of the water also leaves a lot to be desired - Presa Centenario suffers terribly from industrial and domestic run off from nearby San Juan del Rio.

Hopefully, the Clipperton Project can raise awareness of these problems in Tequisquiapan and take some steps to counter them.