Green-tailed Towhee at Presa Paso de Tablas

We had a look around the Mesquite Forest at Presa Paso de Tablas on Saturday morning.  It is an interesting habitat, and threw up a few interesting species.

It certainly seems to be the best spot for Northern Cardinal around Tequisquiapan.  I've had a few here over the years, and there was a fine male on Saturday.

Northern Cardinal

The highlight, though, was undoubtedly this fine Green-tailed Towhee. I've never had one round here, and there's only one eBird record, dating back to 1995.  With little observer coverage in the state, though, they could well be overlooked.  Green-tailed Towhees range over most of Mexico in winter, so Queretaro is well within range.  

Green-tailed Towhee

Some other decent birds in the enchanted forest included 4 Summer Tanagers, 1 Western Tanager, 1 Black-throated Grey Warbler, and several Ladder-backed Woodpeckers and Golden-fronteds.

Los Claustros (Rio San Juan)

Little afternoon stroll along the banks of the Rio San Juan today.  Yet again, I locked onto a great mixed species flock.  This one had 1 Black-and-white Warbler, 2 Black-throated Grey Warblers, 2 Nashville Warblers, 2 Townsend's Warblers, 3 Wilson's Warblers, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, 1 noisy Plumbeous Vireo, 1 House Wren, several Blue-grey Gnatcatchers and a Broad-billed Hummingbird.

Away from that excellent flock, it was fairly quiet - just an Orange-crowned Warbler, a Black Phoebe and a Western Wood Pewee of note.

River of Raptors

 A few weekends ago, I went to Veracruz with Valentina to see one of the most magnificent wildlife spectacles imaginable - the migration of the North American birds of prey.

A massive percentage of North American raptors pass over a small corridor of land on the Veracruz coast each Autumn.  Mississippi Kites pass through in mid-September, followed by masses of Broad-winged Hawks in late-September.  Later on it's the turn of Swainson's Hawks and Turkey Vultures.  This is without mentioning the other goodies like Ospreys, Peregrines, Aplomado Falcons, Hook-billed Kites, Northern Harriers, Cooper's Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks and Zone-tailed Hawks.  In total about 5 million raptors move through each autumn.

We caught the peak of Broad-winged Hawk migration.  The flocks below contained about 40,000 birds..

Broad-winged Hawks, Veracru

Broad-winged Hawks

The 'river' in full flow

One of the great things about the viz-migging here is the comfort in which you can watch the birds.  One of the main watches is from the top of the Hotel Bienvenido in the town of Jose Cardel.  You can lay back with a cold one whilst watching the streams of raptors pass overhead.  We also got lucky with big movements of Anhingas (below), as well as many Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and other passerines.

Anhingas

In the afternoon, things tend to heat up at Chichicaxtle, a site about 10km inland from Cardel.  This is a great spot, with an observation tower, a shop and an informative visitor centre.  Lots of education programmes and good stuff going on here.

Rio San Juan, Tequisquiapan

Evening walk along the Rio San Juan on Tuesday in Tequisquiapan gave a few nice birds.  Not loads and loads of Warblers yet, but I did get onto a flock which contained Nashville, Black-and-white, Black-throated Grey, Townsend's, Wilson's and Yellow-rumped.

Black-throated Grey Warbler

 A nice surprise was a Belted Kingfisher and a pair of Green Kingfishers.  Suggests that the river has a few fish in it.

Green Kingfisher

Many Broad-billed Hummingbirds were present, as well as 1 Violet-crowned and 1 migrant Ruby-throated.  Other local specialities easy to pick up at this spot are Clay-colored Robin and Black-backed Oriole.

Full list as follows:
Cattle Egret  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Spotted Sandpiper  8
Inca Dove  10
White-winged Dove  40
Mourning Dove  6
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Broad-billed Hummingbird  5
Violet-crowned Hummingbird  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Green Kingfisher  2
Golden-fronted Woodpecker  2
American Kestrel  2
Black Phoebe  5
Vermilion Flycatcher  8
Dusky-capped Flycatcher  1
Cassin's Kingbird  5
Loggerhead Shrike  1
Barn Swallow  20
Bushtit  4
Canyon Wren  1
Bewick's Wren  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  6
Clay-colored Thrush  6
European Starling  8
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Orange-crowned Warbler  1
Nashville Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  6
Black-throated Gray Warbler  1
Townsend's Warbler  1
Wilson's Warbler  10
White-collared Seedeater  1
Clay-colored Sparrow  8
Blue Grosbeak  4
Great-tailed Grackle  30
Black-backed Oriole  4
House Finch  2
Lesser Goldfinch  10
House Sparrow  2

Presa de la Constitucion, San Gil, Queretaro

An evening walk around a very full Presa de la Constitucion with Paul Bentinck last Thursday was fairly productive despite the water levels being too high for any waders.

It's a great spot for Herons, and we locked onto several Great Blue Herons and a Green Heron as well as all 3 Egrets and about 50 Black-crowned Night Herons (mainly juveniles).  The Herons tend to congregate in the marshy area of the Presa near the Fiesta Americana hotel.  Also in this area we found a Northern Jacana, some hunting White-tailed Kites and an Osprey, whilst in the rushes were some Common Yellowthroats.

Many of the wintering warblers have arrived in Queretaro now, and we saw and heard lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Wilson's Warblers, as well as a migrating Yellow Warbler.  A flock of Groove-billed Anis entertained us, and other highlights included a stunning male Hooded Oriole (as well as several Black-backed) and a Great Kiskadee (rare in this part of Mexico).

Broad-billed Hummingbird.  We also connected with the endemic Violet-crowned

Laguna de Servin October 2015

Excellent morning's birding with Valentina and Paul Bentinck (who motivated me to Blog again!) yesterday up the road to Laguna de Servin in the pine-oak covered mountains near Amealco.

Some great sparrows in the open country on the way up - Striped, Savannah (pictured), Vesper and Clay-colored.  Also some nice groups of Horned Larks (pictured), as well as Blue Grosbeaks, American Kestrels and a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Horned Lark

Savannah Sparrow

The real highlight was getting into some mixed Warbler flocks - the best one of which included Townsends, Hermits, Slate-throated Whitestards, Painted Redstarts, Crecent-Chested, Wilson's, Orange-crowned and a cracking Red Warbler (as well as Bushtits, Hermit Thrush, Gray Silkies and a Broad-winged Hawk circling lazily overhead). 

Further up, we got into a big group of Woodpeckers, including 6 Acorn and 4 Hairy.  They were associating loosely with some Elegant Euphonias, Plumbeous Vireos and a Flame-colored Tanager. 

Red Warbler

Townsend's Warbler

A cracking day out - 53 species in total - was finished off with nice views of Olive Warblers  and Greater Pewee.