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. Anyone is welcome to join us if they want to see the spectacle of spring raptor migration, whether they know nothing or know a lot regarding identifying raptor species.
| Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 09, 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 | 2 | 2 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 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 | 1 | 16 | 16 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 4 | 6 | 10 |
| 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 Accipitrine | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 5 | 25 | 29 |
| Observation start time: | 08:45:00 |
| Observation end time: | 15:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 6.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Ajit Antony |
| Observers: | Liza Antony, Raj Manikandan |
Visitors:
We had a surprise visitor, Raj Manikandan who had been on one of our DFO winter raptor trips a little over a year ago, and I remembered him as being very sharp-eyed and observant. He arrived at 12:10 p.m. MDT, and he had just missed the first migrant GE. For more than the next hour we didn't have any migrants, and I kept telling him that if he came in April it would be a lot better. Eventually we had the migrants and the non-migrant GEs which made his visit worthwhile. He found us one of the migrant and one of the non-migrant GE. Joe, who comes up walking frequently from Golden. 11 people asked the usual questions. We were able to show up to 15 people close up GEs, and they were quite astonished that it had a 6-7 foot wingspan, and the BEs.
Weather:
The forecast was for light SSW>NW winds and I was curious what we would get with the latter. There was some streaky white clouds to the South, which unfortunately lasted only 1.5 hours. While we could see Mount Blue Sky clearly at 39 km the clear visibility to the east was only 19 km. The Soaring Forecast was excellent with the trigger temperature of 55.8°F expected at 11:30 a.m. MDT which would result in a lift of 4 meters/second, with thermal height 9888 ft AGL, above ground level. Surprisingly there were no paraglider seen by us.
Raptor Observations:
The first raptor of the day was an RT at 11:45 a.m. MDT over the middle of Lookout Mountain. Migrant raptors of note: GE adult at 12:05 p.m. MDT over the western part of Lookout Mountain which soared NNW. GE adult at 1:25 p.m. MDT again over the Western part of Lookout Mountain, soaring NNW. GE adult at 1:39 p.m. MDT over South Table Mountain and which circled, soared high, flew SW (non-migrant?), and eventually after 5 minutes of observation glided to the NNW. GE adult over the eastern part of Lookout Mountain at 3:10 p.m. which circled and kept gaining height, which we deemed was a likely migrant, as a local would not fly that high; at 3:18 p.m. a visitor asked me what was directly overhead and it was an adult GE, which I thought was the same one we had seen 8 minutes ago over Lookout Mountain. Non-migrant raptors:1. GE adult low over North Table Mountain soared high and vaguely NW, eventually soaring West at 2:30 p.m..2. GE adult low over North Table Mountain, flew along Clear Creek Valley going South at 2:56 p.m. numeral 3. Adult GE low over North Table Mountain flew Northward at the same height, and ultimately dropped to hunt at 3:03 p.m. 4. GE adult over North Table Mountain flew along Clear Creek Valley to the SW. 5. 5 minutes before I left, and adults and a juvenile BE were soaring overhead, easily visible with the naked eye. They circled and kept gradually going south. As we were waiting at the traffic light at the corner of routes 58, 119 and 93 we saw an Astur accipiter fly just over us, going north.
Non-raptor Observations:
Stellers Jay 1, Common Raven 6, American Crow 12, Black-billed Magpie 3, American Robin 1.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aiantony@earthlink.net)
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