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: Aug 28, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 24 | 81 | 81 |
| Osprey | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 3 | 10 | 10 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 18 | 103 | 103 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Kestrel | 2 | 19 | 19 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Total: | 48 | 231 | 231 |
| Observation start time: | 08:15:00 |
| Observation end time: | 15:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 6.75 hours |
| Official Counter | Ajit Antony |
| Observers: |
Visitors:
In the morning an older hiker ask me if I were bird watching and I explained what I was looking for. He wanted to know if I was a professor here. I said I am a retired urologist and I counted migrant hawks even while I was working, even in the pre-cell phone era carrying a pager! He said a bird would call outside his window and he did not know what it was for years, and finally he was able to figure out it was a black capped chickadee using the birdnet app. I told him about Merlin, and he put it on his phone. I explained what the scope does for me, and let him look at one of the antenna through it. A young woman said Pretty cool when I told her what I was doing. As I was shouldering my backpack to leave 3 young men came up and of course wanted to know what I was doing. They were from Ramsey New Jersey which is only 45 minutes from where I used to live in NY. Two of them were visiting the one who lives now in Denver. When I explained, they could not believe that raptors migrated as far as Argentina. I showed them the range map. And back in spring as well, I told them. They had innumerable questions such as can I make out all the 16 species we can see here? I said I wouldn't be here if I couldn't! They want to know the fastest raptors. PG and GE in a stoop. One of them noticed a raptor easily visible in flight. I was able to show them the white translucent windows of a juvenile RT. 15 minutes later I was finally able to leave. They wanted a photograph with me and asked 2 others who were up there to take a picture. One of them said to make us smile "Say red-tailed hawk," having listened to my conversation with the 3 men, he admitted.
Weather:
The by now usual wildfire smoke over Denver but not over the horizon. It was cool when the wind blew, and sweaty and hot when it did not. There was a large cloud to the east and south temporarily and intermittently blocking off the Sun.At different times during the day there was virga in many different. I heard thunder from the South and it was around 10 mi away past the watch. There was 5 minutes of light drizzle at the beginning of the 11:00 MST hour and a few drops 2 hours later. Rain that was initially predicted for noon did not show up at all in any significance.
Raptor Observations:
The first raptor found was a migrant below the crest of Green Mountain, while I was looking at 2 CORA, followed by 2 more along the same flight channel 1 and 4 minutes later. Green Mountain north end is 3.6 miles from this watch, and it is fortunate that it is treeless, with a smooth looking warm brown color of mainly grassland with scattered groups of shrubs, not that it's really easy finding raptors that distant against the face of the mountain, but is far preferable to trying to find them against the trees and houses between the watch and Denver. A majority of the migrants were found somewhere in relation to Lookout Mountain, especially the east end with the antennae. Some were found flying either over Green Mountain or west of Green Mountain which would be over the Dinosaur Ridge hawk watch which we cannot see from this location because of Lookout Mountain. A CH was fortuitously discovered west of the West-most antenna on Lookout Mountain while I was looking at 2 TV. Non-migrant raptors: RT mainly in groups of 2, 3, 4 a total of 12, with pairs of them chasing each other; TV 16 including 14 at one time with two RT over Lookout Mountain, none of whom turn out to be migrants after watching them for 10 minutes though some of them seem to fly in the right direction before turning around. The last 0.5 hours was the only time period without any migrants, until the last 4 minutes when 2 TV went through. The flight paths I could see today were just east of Lookout Mountain, around the easternmost 2 antenna on Lookout Mountain going directly SSE, from the same location going towards the SSW/SW flying over most of Lookout Mountain, and either over Green Mountain or just west of Green Mountain i.e. over the location of the Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch.
Non-raptor Observations:
BGGN 1, ROWR 1, BTHU 1, WEBL 1, GTTO 1, RBNU 1, WTSW 3, MOCH 1, SPTO 1, WBNU 1 interior West subspecies. Two young women hikers found elk in a clearing on Lookout Mountain and showed us. There were 5. Of course, they wanted to know whether I was a researcher, and I explained.
Predictions:
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 66. West wind 5 to 8 mph. The winds aloft are predicted to be light from the WNW>NW>S.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aiantony@earthlink.net)
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