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: Oct 01, 2026 |
| Species |
Day's Count |
Month Total |
Season Total |
| Black Vulture |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Turkey Vulture |
0 |
0 |
248 |
| Osprey |
0 |
0 |
26 |
| Bald Eagle |
1 |
1 |
6 |
| Northern Harrier |
1 |
1 |
19 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk |
1 |
1 |
20 |
| Cooper's Hawk |
17 |
17 |
197 |
| American Goshawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk |
7 |
7 |
109 |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
16 |
16 |
491 |
| Rough-legged Hawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Swainson's Hawk |
3 |
3 |
192 |
| Ferruginous Hawk |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Golden Eagle |
0 |
0 |
14 |
| American Kestrel |
3 |
3 |
132 |
| Merlin |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| Peregrine Falcon |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Prairie Falcon |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Mississippi Kite |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| Unknown Buteo |
0 |
0 |
7 |
| Unknown Falcon |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Eagle |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Raptor |
0 |
0 |
10 |
| Total: |
49 |
49 |
1482 |
| Observation start time: |
08:15:00 |
| Observation end time: |
17:00:00 |
| Total observation time: |
8.42 hours |
| Official Counter |
Ajit Antony, Liza Antony |
| Observers: |
Ajit Antony |
Visitors:
A repeat visitor who insisted on calling me an ornithologist inquired as to how many more weeks we are likely to count at the Mount Zion Hawkwatch. It depended on the migrating hawks, and it could be as late as November 15 or even later. A regular hiker, a geographer who designs hiking trails named Fletcher from Virginia who is in Denver while his wife does her PhD at the School of Mines asked how many migrants I had seen, and how long I was going to count this season. Another hiker said I saw your last time I was here, and asked a number of questions- What was I looking for? Migrant hawks. Only hawks? Yes, only migrant hawks. Passerines migrate at night. Is this research? Yes. For whom? HMA Hawk Migration Association of North America. There are around 76 active fall hawk watches which report to HMA. How many have you seen today? 35 or so. What species? Up to 17 different species, 3 of which are rare, mainly CH, RT. How many hours have you been counting? Have you noticed any trends? This is only the first year we have counted regularly here. So yours is the baseline? Yes.
Weather:
A cool day with a starting temperature of 58�F. A fine drizzle in Golden and on Lookout Mountain Road to the parking lot. The ground adjacent to the stone steps leading to the watch was dry making me suspect that there wasn�t significant rain yesterday at the watch.. Interestingly, downtown Denver was clear at the start of the watch and around 12 noon MDT a low haze was noted over downtown Denver and adjacent areas caused by a moderate level of PM 10. At 1:45 p.m. MDT when I took over there was mostly blue sky overhead and to the east with a layer of cumulus just about the eastern horizon. I stayed up to 6:00 p.m. to see if they would be any late migrants especially low, once the thermals shut down. Answer: a few along the Kestrel Channel and just over Lookout Mountain between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., and only one SS at eye level through the Kestrel Channel at 5:09 p.m.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant an RT was seen at 9:28 AM MDT already at the limit of binocular detection. A juvenile NH flew 40 feet downslope of me, skimming only a foot off the ground. In the 1 PM hour MDT there were no migrants detected, and in the 2:00 PM our only 1. The migrants were flying much too high to be detected. I scanned with binoculars straight up as well as to the S without any result. Non-migrant raptors: RT 6, CH 1, TV 3, adult GE 3 the one in the afternoon was extremely distant and rocking like a TV but with my scope I could see the dorsal carpal bar, adult BE 1.
Non-raptor Observations:
In the far distance and very high I saw 25 Sandhill Crane migrating south, to the east of the watch. https://ebird.org/checklist/S398134054 The first paraglider was noted at 11:11 AM. At 1:45 p.m. MDT a paraglider had excellent lift and went really high, later saw far to the North where 3 of them were only visible with binoculars.
Predictions:
Sunny, with a high near 79. Calm wind becoming east around 6 mph in the afternoon. The winds aloft that raptors use are expected SW>S>E>N.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (
aiantony@earthlink.net)
More information at
hawkcount.org: [
Site Profile] [
Day Summary] [
Month Summary]
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