Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
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 29, 2026 |
| Species |
Day's Count |
Month Total |
Season Total |
| Black Vulture |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Turkey Vulture |
5 |
86 |
86 |
| Osprey |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Bald Eagle |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Northern Harrier |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk |
0 |
3 |
3 |
| Cooper's Hawk |
2 |
12 |
12 |
| American Goshawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
12 |
115 |
115 |
| Rough-legged Hawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Swainson's Hawk |
2 |
10 |
10 |
| Ferruginous Hawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Golden Eagle |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| American Kestrel |
1 |
20 |
20 |
| 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 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Total: |
22 |
253 |
253 |
| Observation start time: |
08:15:00 |
| Observation end time: |
13:30:00 |
| Total observation time: |
5.25 hours |
| Official Counter |
Ajit Antony |
| Observers: |
Liza Antony |
Visitors:
Many hikers were curious and we explained what we were doing. A couple with 3 children was especially interested and wanted to know more about how thermals form. The children wanted to know whether we could see bears, and I said we didn't. I asked them after explaining about raptor migration, which way did they think the raptors were migrating in this season, and one of them pointed West. I asked him what season would come after the next one? Their mother help them to winter. I asked what would they feed when there's are feet of snow on the ground. One of the children volunteered that they "build up enough stores to last all winter," and I said You're thinking of bears. That's why raptors migrate, I explained. They wanted to know if hawks migrate alone and I explained about the flocking behavior of BW and SW on migration. They wanted to know how far hawks migrate to, and I explained that BW and SW go as far as Argentina, and I showed them range maps on the Merlin app, which of course the children were very interested in. I showed them 2 TV high up, and 1 of them flew South and I explained that that could be a migrant. The father said he would get the Merlin app. We showed another couple a distant RT migrating. Another couple wanted to know whether the we were here daily, and whether we did this " before this time of your life," and I explained that I have been doing this for 40 years, and Liza for 11 years.
Weather:
Minimal smoke over Denver today. Mostly cloudy, but there were thin cirrus clouds allowing hot sunshine to shine through. Later, as usual for this site, cumulus clouds formed and increased from the West. The last 0.5 hours had a few drops of rain.
Raptor Observations:
Today was the first day that we had more migrants flying over the horizon with absolutely none of them flying SSE past the 2 antenna on the east end of Lookout Mountain. This is more like the flights we had when we counted in September in 2024. The first local raptors were two RT diving on each other, and they succulent flew very high already by 9:27 a.m. DST. The first migrant was an RT at 9:44 a.m. flying over Green Mountain, but very high c. 10� AGL, because of good lift of 18 ft per second and high thermals at 12,825 ft. AGL, a mile above the watch, according to the Soaring Forecast of the NWS. At 12:41 p.m. Liza found an easily visible RT over North Table Mountain, which flew through the Kestrel Channel but a little below eye level, then dropped against the conifers of the North face of Lookout Mountain where we were startled to see it had a white tail! Krider's? I was able to find it in my scope and it had the distal half of the tail dusky, a dirty looking belly and the usual white scapulars. Since it had brown on the dorsal wings we decided it wasn't a pure Harlan's Hawk but had Harlan's ancestry. It rose to the top of Lookout Mountain, circled, was attacked a few times by another RT, flew eastward for a while, and we couldn't believe it wasn't a migrant, and finally at 12:48 p.m. it finally did, followed by the other RT. Non-migrant raptors: CH 1, AK 1, TV 16, RT 17. While looking at the Kestrel Channel for any raptors, I suddenly had an insight as to why they fly along it. Windy Saddle is the saddle between Lookout Mountain and Mount Zion, and the prevalent late morning and afternoon East winds originating from Denver blow through the saddle, which kestrels and others use as a highway. Many of the raptors took around 5 minutes gaining height and circling around before they finally migrated, so it was good having Liza today.
Non-raptor Observations:
RECR 2, WTSW 3, TOSO 1, SPTO 1, WEBL 3, MOCH 1, BGGN 1, VGSW 13, AMRO 1, CORA 4, Bushtit 2.
Predictions:
A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. South wind 5 to 9 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph. The winds are aloft are predicted from the SW>WSW.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (
aiantony@earthlink.net)
More information at
hawkcount.org: [
Site Profile] [
Day Summary] [
Month Summary]
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