[cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (16 Sep 2026) 51 Raptors

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: Sep 16, 2026
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	9	84	189
Osprey	2	18	20
Bald Eagle	0	1	2
Northern Harrier	3	4	5
Sharp-shinned Hawk	0	2	5
Cooper's Hawk	10	52	66
American Goshawk	0	0	0
Broad-winged Hawk	0	18	18
Red-tailed Hawk	14	173	330
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Swainson's Hawk	1	115	130
Ferruginous Hawk	0	1	1
Golden Eagle	0	1	2
American Kestrel	12	62	82
Merlin	0	0	0
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	1
Prairie Falcon	0	0	1
Mississippi Kite	0	0	0
Unknown Accipitrine	0	2	2
Unknown Buteo	0	0	1
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	1	2
Total:	51	534	857

Observation start time:	08:30:00
Observation end time:	13:00:00
Total observation time:	4.5 hours
Official Counter	Ajit Antony
Observers:	Liza Antony

Visitors:
Aaron Lefland from Connecticut who lives near Lighthouse Point Hawk Watch and has visited there, was in Denver for a conference on Land Management, looked up eBird hotspots and found the Mount Zion Hawk Watch (which Zak Hepler had recently requested hotspot designation), so we found him at the watch when we got there, he helped us find a number of raptors, we in turn helped him learn to identify raptors in flight. He had a number of passerine lifers today.

Weather:
Less hazy over Denver then the day before, again caused by an inversion layer we could see as a brown haze to the Northeast which gradually moved South. Cool, breezy and pleasant all day, winds from the ESE changing to ENE, cloud cover 30% increasing to 85% mainly cirrus in the morning with cumulus coming in from the West as usual by the afternoon, clear visibility initially only 5 km and increasing only to 19 km.

Raptor Observations:
The first two migrants were AK along the Kestrel Channel way below us at 9:39 a.m. MDT. In addition to AK, RT (mainly local) were seen along the channel, as did all the Steller's Jay seen. At 10:46 a.m. a migrant juvenile dark morph RT promptly IDed by Liza. Non-migrant raptors: AK 2, CH 1, RT 4, TV 6.

Non-raptor Observations:
Two paragliders at 10:00 a.m. had no lift, 8 after 11:00 a.m. had none to moderate left while by 11:45 a.m. some of them were really high, barely visible to the eye. CAWR 1 calling, STJA 12, VGSW 4, WTSW 6, NOFL 1, SPTO 1, AMRO 1, AMCR 1, CORA an unkindness or conspiracy of 26, HAWO 1, BLJA 1. Because of the inversion layer, lift was very poor at 2 ft per second with the predicted maximum height of thermal 5,114 ft AGL, though the migrants were flying much much higher. As we say, they hadn't read the prediction.

Predictions:
A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Calm wind becoming east northeast around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

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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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