Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle ParkGolden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
This is a new raptor migration site identified and designated so only in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch. To get to the site which is along Lookout Mountain Rd. in Golden, enter either Windy Saddle Park or Mount Zion into Google Maps on your favorite navigation app, or enter the coordinates 39.7368,-105.2454. From the parking lot ascend the stone steps to the watch site.
| Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 01, 2024 |
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 0 | 47 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 0 | 0 | 79 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | 1 | 147 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 0 | 138 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Total: | 1 | 1 | 548 |
| Observation start time: | 09:45:00 |
| Observation end time: | 13:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 2.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Ajit Antony |
| Observers: | |
Visitors:A couple hiking â€" the woman wanted to know if I were looking at hawks and eagles (I thought â€" Here's someone who knows something about a hawk watch). I explained about fall migration of raptors, and why. She said she had gone to Dinosaur Ridge, and I said I helped count in spring; and explained that we started this watch as Colorado had no fall hawk watch. The man with her said "That's awesome!" Another woman wanted to know if I'd seen anything.
Weather:The forecast was for light winds from the SSW>SE>E>ENE, but at the watch, they were from the East. Excellent cirrus cloud cover 50% which made for a good backdrop to see potential migrants, mainly sunny, temperature 8°C, limited clear visibility to 19 kilometers with haziness.
Raptor Observations:This is the time of the year when I was counting at the I-84 Overlook Hawk watch in NY, that we would look forward to getting good RT flights on NW winds. In the West, Commissary Ridge Hawk Watch in Wyoming which is located similar to Mount Zion along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, has had 1094 RT migrating this fall season. My question was "What happens to those RTs from 323 miles away. Do they follow a course along the eastern edge of the Rockies, do they fly further west and bypassing Mount Zion, or do the settle down for the winter somewhere between Wyoming and Colorado." Looking at the eBird Status and Trends map for RT: https://tinyurl.com/shd4s4yk it appears that not much RT migration happens over the Rockies (make sure you've clicked on the Weekly tab on top, slowed the display to 1 second, and changed the date to say, September and click on the start button) â€" there's a sharp drop-off in sightings West of the Eastern edge of the (presumably) Rockies. There was only one migrant today, an RT, but it was a beauty â€" a dark morph which flew low directly over me, with a black body and coverts, a single narrow sub-terminal black tail band, with a reddish tail (which ruled out Harlan's). This is the 6th intermediate or dark morph migrant raptor we've seen this fall here (over 127.5 hours, compared to Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch's 460.75 hours in spring, when we counted 9).
Non-raptor Observations:Mountain Chickadee 1, Townsend's Solitaire 1, Common Raven 2, American Crow 2.
Predictions:Light winds, similar to today.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (
aiantony@earthlink.net)
More information at
hawkcount.org: [
Site Profile] [
Day Summary] [
Month Summary]
Directions to site:From I-70 from Northeast Denver, take Route 58, then a left turn going south on
Route 6, the 1st exit is for Lookout Mountain Road, turn right and follow the
clothes to find Windy Saddle Park parking lot on the right.
From I-70 from points west of Denver, take the Lookout Mountain Road and follow
it to the Windy Saddle Park parking lot, a longer route.
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