Presa Constitucion de 1917, San Gil

A great birding site with fresh, clean water, which attracts a really interesting avifauna.

The abundance of fish here attracts pescivorous birds which are hard to find elsewhere in Queretaro, notably Neotropic Cormorants, American White Pelicans, and a variety of Herons.  The site also hosts excellent numbers of waders, particularly in passage, and on my trip with Xander, we discovered some really interesting nearby habitats.

Here are the Pelicans.  We had about 80 birds, loafing around and occasionally taking to the skies in spectacular formations.  Hanging around with the Pelican flocks were 8 Ring-billed Gulls.

In terms of waders, we dropped on to Least Sands, Spotted Sands, 2 Western Sands, 3 Semipalmated Plovers, Killdeers, Black-necked Stilts, 4 Greater Yellowlegs and Long-billed Dowitchers.  In passage, it is also possible to find Pectoral Sands, Lesser Yellowlegs,American Avocets, Black-bellied Plovers and Wilson's Phalaropes here (and potentially many more!).

Constitucion is decent for hirundines as well.  We had Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows here.  Cliff and Bank are also possible.

Barn Swallow

We followed the river which leads into the Reservoir upstream for a while, and discovered some quality wooded, riparian habitat.  A bit of tactical 'pishing' brought close the following: Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Audubon's Warblers, Broad-billed Hummingbirds, Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, Nashville Warbler and Vermilion Flycatchers.  Amazingly, we also clocked on to two Grey Silkys, a very unusual bird to find in this neck of the woods.

A nearby 'bog' held huge numbers of Wilson's Snipe and also a Black-crowned Night Heron colony.   Herons are indeed a feature here - Great Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret and Great Egret are easy, and Tricolored Heron is possible.  White-faced Ibis is regular, and I've even had Roseate Spoonbill here.