[cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (21 Feb 2025) Raptors

Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA

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 state's second spring watch site. Many raptors seen c. 1.5 miles to the West from Dinosaur Ridge, may be directly overhead at this site, we are hoping. 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: Feb 21, 2025
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	0
Osprey	0	0	0
Bald Eagle	0	0	0
Northern Harrier	0	0	0
Sharp-shinned Hawk	0	0	0
Cooper's Hawk	0	0	0
American Goshawk	0	0	0
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	0	0	0
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Swainson's Hawk	0	0	0
Ferruginous Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	4	4
American Kestrel	0	0	0
Merlin	0	0	0
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	0
Prairie Falcon	0	0	0
Mississippi Kite	0	0	0
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	0
Unknown Buteo	0	0	0
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	0	0
Total:	0	4	4

Observation start time:	10:30:00
Observation end time:	14:00:00
Total observation time:	3.5 hours
Official Counter	Ajit Antony
Observers:

Weather:
It had snowed 4-5 inches last night, and Lookout Mountain Road had not been plowed beyond the gate which was half closed, so I drove homeward, disappointed, then decided to observe from the little hikers parking lot at 2151 Lookout Mountain Road, further east, which gave the same view as from Mount Zion and closer to where the raptors would fly, and provided a better view to the SSE. I could even see Dinosaur Ridge, which I can't from Mount Zion. The snowplow finally came through only at 2:00 p.m. The elevation was 5948 ft.

Raptor Observations:
I didn't expect any migrants on North/NNE winds, but decided to go up anyway. Non-migrant raptors: RT 7, 3 to the East and 4 to the South, their underwings gleaming white with reflected snow. 1 instead of circling, flew over the Eastern slope of Lookout Mountain, and it looked like a migrant, a Western calurus dark morph through binoculars, but was an intermediate(rufous) morph through my scope with a brown body and brown underwing coverts, but which unfortunately landed on the North slope of the mountain. We hadn't seen any dark morph local birds during the fall migration, so we will keep an eye open for it.

Non-raptor Observations:
Common Raven 2, American Crow 8, Black-billed Magpie 3, Canada Goose 3.

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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aiantony@earthlink.net)
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]

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