Golden, 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, enter either Windy Saddle Park or Mount Zion in Google Maps.
| Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 23, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 1 | 15 | 15 |
| Osprey | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 6 | 16 | 16 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 10 | 36 | 36 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 10 | 14 | 14 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 10 | 55 | 55 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 1 | 31 | 31 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Golden Eagle | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| American Kestrel | 5 | 88 | 88 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Buteo | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 1 | 7 | 7 |
| Total: | 46 | 273 | 273 |
| Observation start time: | 08:45:00 |
| Observation end time: | 15:30:00 |
| Total observation time: | 6.75 hours |
| Official Counter | Ajit Antony |
| Observers: | Liza Antony |
Visitors:
One woman walked over to ask us if we had seen any mountain goats. Liza explained what we were doing.
Weather:
Another day with a disparity between predicted winds for Golden,CO versus actual winds at the watch site.The prediction was for light winds from the NW>NNW>NE, but we had East>allESE. We weren't sure whether the East wind was a ridge effect of wind rising up the mountain, but we could see 3 windsocks where paragliders take off, and these pointed East so we were reassured. We wondered whether Golden may actually have the predicted winds, so we looked for flags in Golden and they were also flying from the east. The temperature was 21-27°C, humidity 33>24>36%, cloud cover absent all mornin gwith some clouds blowing in from the West, which is again interesting and that was different from the surface winds we experienced, but looking at earth.nullschool.net it did show higher winds coming from the West. Visibility was unlimited with no haze, though there was brown smog at the NE horizon.
Raptor Observations:
When we got to the parking lot of the Windy Saddle Park, there were barricades at both ends as they were doing some work there. We drove back toward Golden along Lookout Mountain Road to find a pullout, and the nearest was 1/2 mile away where we decided to do our watch at 39.7423486,-105.2390684 which gave us exactly the same field of view as from the top of Mount Zion except all the landmarks to the east were much closer, and at 6754 feet/2058.6 m, was 770 m from the top of Mount Zion as the crow flies. . In the 1st full hour we had 14 migrants including 9 BW, the next hour we had 10 migrating, and the one after that only 6. We couldn't believe That the raptors had stopped migrating, and I was sure we were missing migrants against the blue sky. We looked really high into the blue sky scanning with binoculars and found none. We looked behind us over Mount Zion and found 3 CH, and no more. I lay on a 45° incline rock with my head supported, to be able to look straight up, as recommended by Pat Sutton some decades ago at Cape May, without any raptors found. Finally by the 1st full hour we had some clouds coming in from the West and were able to spot raptors against this backdrop. The last migrant was an adult GE molting a few secondaries. Non-migrant raptors: In the morning an adult GE dropped to the north side of Lookout Mountain where it chased an RT, after a while the RT chased the GE which flew North low over Golden â€"this reminded me of the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz! We also saw another adult GE missing 2 write inner primaries and a few secondaries, and which flew north. RT 6. TV 2.
Non-raptor Observations:
Steller's Jay 1, Common Raven 5, Northern Flicker 1, Downy Woodpecker 1, Black-billed Magpie 1.
Predictions:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 76, 2 mph west wind early, changing to 6 mph by 10 AM to NE. Jeffco will continue work at the parking lot tomorrow and the 26th, so we will be the alternate site tomorrow as detailed above, and will be there by 9:30 AM.
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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