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: Nov 06, 2026 |
| Species |
Day's Count |
Month Total |
Season Total |
| Black Vulture |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Turkey Vulture |
0 |
0 |
270 |
| Osprey |
0 |
1 |
30 |
| Bald Eagle |
0 |
1 |
8 |
| Northern Harrier |
1 |
2 |
31 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk |
0 |
1 |
52 |
| Cooper's Hawk |
0 |
8 |
296 |
| American Goshawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk |
0 |
0 |
109 |
| Red-tailed Hawk |
15 |
69 |
757 |
| Rough-legged Hawk |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Swainson's Hawk |
0 |
0 |
194 |
| Ferruginous Hawk |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| Golden Eagle |
5 |
8 |
40 |
| American Kestrel |
0 |
7 |
152 |
| Merlin |
0 |
0 |
7 |
| Peregrine Falcon |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Prairie Falcon |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| Mississippi Kite |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| Unknown Buteo |
0 |
0 |
9 |
| Unknown Falcon |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Eagle |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Unknown Raptor |
0 |
0 |
19 |
| Total: |
21 |
97 |
1984 |
| Observation start time: |
09:45:00 |
| Observation end time: |
15:15:00 |
| Total observation time: |
4.5 hours |
| Official Counter |
Ajit Antony |
| Observers: |
|
Visitors:
Many hikers asked questions. A 6 year old boy hiking with his mother plaintively said to her I can't see the M, referring to the big M on the side of the NE face of Mount Zion to denote the School of Mines. I told him where it was, not visible from where we were, and told his mother that they could use the trail to hike there which they did, and enjoyed it. She thanked me for telling her about the trail. Sandhill Crane - 100 in 2 groups of 65 and 35, I was able to show the larger group to 4 hikers, one of whom asked - Is that what you are looking for? I explained what I was actually doing. Isn't this late for cranes? Do you know about the Merlin app? Yes, I have it. I opened it and showed them the bar graph for SACR showing it could be seen in Golden up to the second week in December. A woman asked whether I was bird watching. I explained. She wanted to know if I had seen any Bald Eagle which she had seen at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR. I explained that they are fish eaters and would be seen closer to reservoirs, while GE are found around mountains. Just then I found a GE over Lookout Mountain 0.3 miles away which I showed her and she could see. She wanted to know how to make out a falcon from a hawk, and I told her about the free Raptor ID app from Hawk Watch International, and since she lived at the base of Green Mountain, I suggested she could go to the Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch in spring and perhaps see some fairly close. A couples told me they were at Red Rocks and they had a bird they could see and heard calling but they didn't know what it was and had a video of it which they played. It was a CORA from its croak. They hadn't heard of the Merlin app, and I demonstrated how it could identify the CORA using the sound from their video. They were certainly impressed and said they would get Merlin, Uncharted with me for about 15 minutes. Some asked about the hawk watch and I explainedre: HMA, around 76 Hawk watches active this fall mainly in the US, some in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America; how researchers can use the data. Four hikers with a tiny baby wanted to know pointing to my scope whether it was a camera or a binocular. Neither, I said, and focused it on DIA and let them look through it, as well as finding a TOSO perched on top of a nearby tree, and letting them know about the Maryland app as well A paraglider at 12:30 p.m. struggled to get any lift whatsoever, consistent with the Soaring Forecast as well as the absence of hawks using thermals so they had to go low through the gap between Green Mountain and Lookout Mountain or use ridge lift on the Eastern end of Lookout Mountain.
Weather:
Denver was only slightly hazy. Completely overcast sky with cirrus clouds after a weak cold front went through yesterday. The combination of NNW winds aloft and ESE winds at the watch, together with poor thermal formation were perfect conditions for a good late migration. The Soaring Forecast of the NWS had a Poor Thermal Soaring Index, lift at only 1.8 ft/sec, thermals 3176 feet AGL which would make it only 1376 ft above the watch, but no trigger temperature time given indicating thermals would remain low all day. In the 11:00 hour there were very few hawks, so I scanned with binoculars higher against the clouds without any luck.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an RT at 10:04 a.m. over Green Mountain. In the 10:00 are I had 10 migrants, and very few each hour thereafter. It would appear that with the poor migration conditions hawks would wait it out until conditions improved. Golden Eagles: 1. Two adult GE at 11:00 a.m. far to the NNW I observed for 7 minutes while they flew around eventually going WSW, non-migrant. 2. An adult GE over Lookout Mountain went NE, I was able to show it to 2 hikers. 3. 11:35 a.m., 2 migrant GE adults about 10� AGL (the height of a fist at arm's length) over the Table Mountains, soaring through the gap between Green Mountain and Lookout Mountain. Both were molting 6th primaries with one missing a single middle secondary and the other molting an inner primary. 4. At 12:35 p.m. I was watching a migrant RT left of the easternmost antenna on Lookout Mountain with my scope to age it when it was suddenly chased by an adult GE which dove on it repeatedly, both of them dropping into the Gap, going south, 5. Around 2:05 p.m. 2 adult GE soared to the West going SW and in following one I lost the other, the one going below the Western end of Lookout Mountain, then rose above the ridge not seeming to migrate. I wondered whether to count the first one, but was reluctant to because I hadn't really seen it going through. A few minutes later both of them came back North over Lookout Mountain and I was able to show them when they were quite close to 2 hikers, that they didn't need to flap at all, and they were thrilled seeing them, particularly when I told them the wingspan was 7 ft. One of them pointed out another eagle coming from the south, easily naked eye, and I pointed out the white head and tail, and they were able to see the adult BE easily. The 2 GE eventually soared to the South! One was molting an 6th primary bilaterally and a central tail feather. An adult RT at 1:36 p.m. found over South Table Mountain actively flapped, because of the poor lift, all the way to the SE.
Non-raptor Observations:
SACR 100, CAFI 1, RECR 2, MOBL 1,STJA 4, TOSO 2 both calling and singing, BBMA 2, CORA 3, AMCR 10,
Predictions:
Tomorrow being the second day after a cold front went through the area could be another good day like today for migration. Sunny, with a high near 62. West wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon. The light winds aloft are predicted from the WNW>NNW>N>NE.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (
aiantony@earthlink.net)
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