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 05, 2026 |
| Species |
Day's Count |
Month Total |
Season Total |
| Black Vulture |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Turkey Vulture |
0 |
13 |
261 |
| Osprey |
0 |
0 |
26 |
| Bald Eagle |
0 |
1 |
6 |
| Northern Harrier |
0 |
2 |
20 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk |
0 |
8 |
27 |
| Cooper's Hawk |
0 |
42 |
222 |
| American Goshawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk |
0 |
7 |
109 |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
4 |
51 |
526 |
| Rough-legged Hawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Swainson's Hawk |
0 |
4 |
193 |
| Ferruginous Hawk |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Golden Eagle |
0 |
1 |
15 |
| American Kestrel |
0 |
7 |
136 |
| Merlin |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| Peregrine Falcon |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Prairie Falcon |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Mississippi Kite |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine |
0 |
1 |
4 |
| Unknown Buteo |
0 |
1 |
8 |
| Unknown Falcon |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Eagle |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Raptor |
0 |
0 |
10 |
| Total: |
4 |
138 |
1571 |
| Observation start time: |
08:15:00 |
| Observation end time: |
11:00:00 |
| Total observation time: |
1.75 hours |
| Official Counter |
Ajit Antony |
| Observers: |
|
Weather:
The usual haze around Denver, perfectly blue sky so the sun felt very hot. In the second hour there was no wind which made it hotter and sweatier, it felt like August all over again with the high today being 88�F.
Raptor Observations:
Almost no raptors today because of the cloudless blue sky, they were probably flying really high, as the Soaring Forecast of the NWS predicted lift at 18 ft per second and height of thermals at 12,459 ft. above ground level! That would be a mile above the watch by 11:30 a.m., the mile high elevation of Denver with its consequent thinner atmosphere and no clouds today made for super high thermals. I tried to avoid 'blue sky myopia' by relaxing my eyes muscles and allowing my eyes to look to infinity, I scanned along the usual hawk channels and up to two or three binocular fields higher as well as directly overhead and could not find any hawks. The only ones I found migrating were over Lookout Mountain. In addition the air was hazy and I was losing hawks suddenly looking through binoculars. Non-migrant raptors: RT 2.
Non-raptor Observations:
Only 1 Townsend's Solitaire, CORA 1, 1 Monarch butterfly.
Predictions:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. West wind 5 to 9 mph becoming calm. However the prediction is for 35% cloud cover, so it wouldn't be as bad as today. The winds aloft are predicted to start from the West and end coming from the East.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (
aiantony@earthlink.net)
More information at
hawkcount.org: [
Site Profile] [
Day Summary] [
Month Summary]
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