Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
To see hourly weather data and details of migrant raptors, look up this watch at hawkcount.org. This is a new raptor migration site identified and designated in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch site, and the second hawk watch in Colorado. 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. EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO THE HAWK WATCH TO ENJOY THE SPECTACLE OF RAPTOR MIGRATION, EVEN IF YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IDENTIFYING RAPTORS IN FLIGHT. We will help you to learn Raptor ID if you are interested. See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk
| Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 11, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 270 |
| Osprey | 0 | 1 | 30 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 2 | 31 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 2 | 53 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 0 | 8 | 296 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 109 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 8 | 111 | 799 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 0 | 0 | 194 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 10 | 42 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 12 | 157 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| Total: | 8 | 148 | 2035 |
| Observation start time: | 09:45:00 |
| Observation end time: | 13:30:00 |
| Total observation time: | 4.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Ajit Antony |
| Observers: | Liza Antony |
Visitors:
Just before I reached the watch there were 2 men sitting on one of the steps, and one said You made it! I replied I do it daily, and of course they wanted to know Why, and I explained. They said they saw a hawk in a tree. I said it's probably an RT. If you want to come up you can look at it through my scope. They did and were blown away by its beauty 'Awesome,' and I explained how to identify its 'hangman's hood,' (I had to explain why a hangman wore a hood - for anonymity, to avoid retribution) and white scapulars (of course I didn't use jargon). I showed them how to take a picture using the scope and their cell phones. One of them had an Oredigger shirt which meant he was a student at the School of Mines, the reputed engineering school and the other was his father who showed me a picture his drone had taken - also an RT. They hadn't heard of the Merlin app the features of which I showed them on my phone. They were most impressed. As I was packing up to leave a woman told the man with her - Townsend's, while looking at her phone. Are you using the Merlin app? No, said the man. Yes, said the woman. It's right there on that tree. You can look at it through my scope. They did and loved the detail. It flew to another tree where I couldn't find it. It's back, the woman said excitedly, and they looked again. I invited 2 other hikers to look and they too thought the bird was beautiful, praise indeed for a relatively drab-looking bird. I pointed out the eyering, the tan wing bars and the white of the outer tail feathers - all of which they could see. The woman wanted to take a picture of my scope, for the name to buy one. I said the first thing would be to get bidnoculars. We have a pair in the car. Forget a scope for now and get binoculars for both of yourselves, and look for a local bird club where you learn and see lots of birds and more important know where to go to find birds. They were very thankful.
Weather:
The same degree of haze around downtown Denver as yesterday as well as the brown cloud. The winds aloft were moderate from the NW but the winds at the watch were Level 4 from the ESE already. This seemed a perfect combination where the NW winds would push hawks down down from Wyoming to the east of the watch, and the ESE winds would push them toward the watch, especially after a weak cold front had gone through yesterday late afternoon. Weather.gov had predicted 9 to 5% cloud cover but we had 20% when we started and 45% when we left. The Soaring Forecast of the NWS had the Thermal Soaring Index as Fair, lift at 5 ft/sec and thermal height by 1:45 p.m. of 4357 feet AGL which would make it only 2557 ft above the watch.
Raptor Observations:
There were no hawks seen until 10:53 a.m. (likely caused by the absence of thermals because of the subsidence inversion layer capping thermal height) when the first RT adult was seen rather distant to the SE seen through the wires of the easternmost antenna on Lookout Mountain, Level 5 height of flight. We usually see them larger looking at that location, but this one was smaller-looking through binoculars so it was much further off from us. Again, only RT migrating today. All the migratory action was over Lookout Mountain except for one RT: At 11:54 a.m. about 20� AGL over North Table Mountain I saw a dark looking hawk completely tucked-in gliding rapidly to the SSE. We struggled to identify it. Initially it looked like a GE, very steady. I managed to see it with my scope without much help as it stayed tucked-in with only two partial flaps, eventually it turned face-on when it passed the antennaeon Lookout Mountain and I could see a vaguely reddish tail and shorter wings- an adult RT. Most of the migrant RT were so far as not to be able to be certain as to its age without a scope. The last RT at 12:07 p.m. was 40� AGL to the ENE, found only by binocular scanning. The last 2 hours we saw no hawks, and as the hawks were already flying at level 5 height of flight, we assumed this was because they were flying beyond binocular range, so we left. At both at the beginning and the end of the watch when there were no hawks visible we scanned high all over the east as well as over Lookout Mountain scanning two and three binocular fields above.
Non-raptor Observations:
A pair of Townsend's Solitaire countersinging to maintain their winter territories, occasionally one chasing the other when it strayed into its territory. https://ebird.org/checklist/S409866452 At 12:21 p.m. a paraglider had no lift, but 6 paragliders after 1:00 p.m. went quite high, consistent with the Soaring Forecast and our observations of the level of flight of migrant hawks today.
Predictions:
Sunny, with a high near 66. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming light and variable.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aiantony@earthlink.net)
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