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 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 27, 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 | 7 | 19 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 0 | 3 | 50 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 0 | 0 | 79 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 0 | 15 | 161 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 3 | 11 |
| American Kestrel | 0 | 1 | 139 |
| 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: | 0 | 29 | 576 |
| Observation start time: | 12:30:00 |
| Observation end time: | 14:30:00 |
| Total observation time: | 2 hours |
| Official Counter | Ajit Antony |
| Observers: |
Visitors:
A young man was curious as to what I was looking at, and I explained.
Weather:
I've been waiting for a day with North-based winds when it wasn't snowing which would provide any Southbound migrants with a tailwind, and looking at earth.nullschool.net which predicted winds streaming directly down from Arctic Canada in a continuous flow with the green circle roughly at the hawk watch site: https://tinyurl.com/375ap4pe. I looked at weather.gov which suggested that the snow may start slowing down between noon and 2 PM, I checked the CDOT WebCams so I could see local snow conditions from home (in the NE part of Denver). I got up to the watch at 12:30 PM when they were very light flurries, patches of blue sky to the NW, fairly comfortable temperature 6°C, no wind initially changing to very light from the NNE, initial visibility was only 15 km and increased by the last hour to 39 km – DIA easily seen, while there were low clouds to the West covering the peaks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lke-5yZw_A8&t=4s for how to use nullschool.
Raptor Observations:
I really didn't expect any migrants as I think the fall migration has ceased at this site– the last few times I have been to the watch there have been only a handful of migrant raptors, but I wanted to confirm. We learn from the known to the unknown, and in my experience at the I-84 Overlook Hawk Watch in New York, where the day after a cold front passed we'd get NW winds ideal for migration of RT and GE right through November and December, where in 2021 we had 27 migrant GE for the fall season including 8 migrants GE in one day in November. However no one has ever counted at Mount Zion, and being unfamiliar with when the fall migration ends, I had to come up today to find out for myself, especially since other hawk watches along the Rocky Mountain flyway have already stopped for the season, so I couldn't learn from them. So it looks like fall migration in the West shuts down earlier than in the eastern United States (NY). Not a single non-migrant raptor aloft.
Non-raptor Observations:
The only bird of any sort I saw was a Townsend's Solitaire which landed on a nearby cedar, not even a single Common Raven heard or seen. As I was leaving I heard a Mountain Chickadee.
Predictions:
This is definitely the last day I'm going to come up this fall season. I will start counting regularly in March 2025, but I will come up for a few days with Southwest winds in February to check for any early migrants such as Prairie Falcon which I read actually nest by mid-February, or Golden Eagle.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aiantony@earthlink.net)
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