Date: 9/4/26 7:23 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (04 Sep 2026) 21 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
Observation start time: 08:45:00
Observation end time: 12:30:00
Total observation time: 3.75 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Kirstin Chapman, Liza Antony
Visitors:
At the parking lot when we were just getting ready to set out, at car park
next to us and it was Kirstin Chapman of her Arvada Kestrel Project who had
read our reports and wanted to come and see the migration. We showed her
how to ID TV versus RT, using the primary projection to help identify SW,
thermal formation and thermal capping clouds developing and coming in from
the West, CH versus SS, and she was interested in how we found and decided
on this site (see Site Settings in the left sidebar of Hawkcount.org for
details). She was a quick learner and good ID RT and TV over Lookout
Mountain 0.6 miles away. 2 young couples remarked on how magical this spot
was, and seeing us with binoculars, one of the women told the others of how
she likes the Merlin app so much she has become a "bird lady." One of the 4
had binoculars and I suggested that if they liked Merlin so much they
should think of going on DFO trips. Another hiker who walked up for the
second time to the top asked how many hawks we had seen and which species.
Weather:
Light wildfire smoke haze over Denver resulting in limited clear visibility
to 19 km which cleared up by 12:00 p.m. to a visibility of 39 km, light
winds from the East, no cloud cover increased to 25%.
The Soaring Forecast of the NWS predicted lift at 12 feet per second with
the height of thermals 11,645 ft AGL which was surprisingly low given the
bright sun and cloudless sky. I looked it up and found that that was
because of a capping inversion layer at 12,000 ft AGL.
Raptor Observations:
Most of the raptors flew over Lookout Mountain with a few flying through
'the gap' between it and Green Mountain, and a small number flying far to
the East and high going straight SSE through the same gap but further east,
closer to Green Mountain. The first raptor aloft was a local TV at 9:56
a.m. DST followed by a migrant RT at 9:58 a.m.. An adult GE was repeatedly
dived on by 3 local RT until it escaped to the north. The local RTs chased
or dove on many of the migrant RT and TV. In the lost 0.5 hours we had only
one migrant, though we were scanning high over Lookout Mountain and to the
east in case they were flying higher because of the height of the thermals,
but we couldn't spot any.
Non-migrant raptors: Close-up CH 2, one juvenile to the NW, and another CH
to the NE seen while we were looking at a paraglider. RT 4. TV 15.
Non-raptor Observations:
The paragliders started at 11:00 a.m. with no lift, but an hour later they
had moderately good lift.
SAPH 1, BTHU 1, BASW 1, CORA 2.
Predictions:
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Mostly sunny,
with a high near 87. Light and variable wind becoming east northeast 5 to 8
mph in the morning.
The winds aloft predicted by earth.nullschool.net is for light North winds
becoming Northeast which could help migrants flying south.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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