Prosaic sightings (Broad-tailed Hummer & Common Nighthawk) - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

In my west Centennial yard, male Broad-tailed Hummingbirds have been trilling about, particularly in the early evening, dusky light, around several blooming penstemons (Penstemon eatonii & P. clutei) and just-now-starting-to-bloom Salvia greggii and Scrophularia macrantha ("Red Birds in a Tree"). The lateness of their visits, which extend well past sunset, has surprised me a little. It's fun to watch them around plants, which they seem to much prefer to the feeders in my backyard. 

On Tuesday (5/26), I had my first Common Nighthawk sighting. Right on schedule, but it was the nature of the sighting that surprised me: a silent and low bird, barely over the tree line, flew over my home near the end of dusk. Given its low flight, it seemed to emerge out of the neighborhood. More typical at this time of year are the higher migratory flights,  with calls, usually a little earlier in the evening. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO