Black chinned hummers, pied billed merganser and a nighthawk

[Marcia Wade - Lafayette, Boulder County]

Tonight (6/12) I saw a lone female pied billed merganser in the Greenlee naturalized area of Lake Waneka. She was the only bird in the pond and was just floating around in the sun, sometimes half-submerged, not feeding. There were several at Hecla Lake last spring, but they didn't hang around for long. I thought it was unusual to see just one, and will go back tomorrow to see if there is a male there too. At Hecla on the 10^th, I observed a male and a female black chinned hummingbird sitting atop a high, dead tree just looking around at dusk, and a nighthawk flying away from Waneka, heading east. . Haven't seen them since.