Date: 10/21/24 6:45 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (21 Oct 2024) 12 Raptors
Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
This is a new raptor migration site identified and designated so only in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch. 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.
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 21, 2024
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Observation start time: 11:00:00
Observation end time: 14:00:00
Total observation time: 3 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Visitors:
In spite of the strong winds there were about 30 hikers who came to the
top, a few even in shorts. One man came carrying a model airplane with
wings about 2 feet wide – needless to say he did not dare fly it in those
conditions.
Weather:
The forecast was for WNW winds with a 50% chance of rain in the morning,
ending by 11a.m.-12 PM, with wind gusts 25-31 mph, partly cloudy. We got to
the watch by 11 AM MDT when it was still raining, so we sat in the car
until the rain ceased. The wind is were at Level 6 (40-50 km/h/25-30 mph)
with occasional gusts to Level 7 when we were happy we had a stone block to
sit on to avoid being blown off our feet! The air was crisp and clear with
visibility to 39 km (DIA), temperature around 13°C, humidity strangely
only 34%, steady barometric pressure. Liza's teeth and ear were hurting,
but she stuck it out – both of us stood in the lee of a cedar for
protection, later I found a spot to the east of the watch below the crest
of the hill where the wind was relatively tolerable, where we repaired when
the wind was particularly brutal.
Raptor Observations:
Mount Lorette Hawk Watch in Alberta counts 2500-3000+ Golden Eagle each
fall. For the first time I looked at where that watch was, and found that
geographically it seems to bear a similar relationship to Calgary as Mount
Zion Hawk Watch has to Denver, and about 940 miles between the 2 watches as
the crow flies. I wondered whether a strong NW wind would push any GE or
other migrating raptors which fly much further west of Mount Zion toward
us, which is the reason we went up today in such adverse conditions – the
previous time we went up with NW winds we had a poor migration. I wondered
whether GE would fly in such strong winds, and was pleasantly surprised to
find RT migrating, so GE should have absolutely no problems doing the same.
In fact 3 of the RT kited into the wind, and were pushed sideways all the
way to the south! Others gained height and glided South. One local RT
kiting into the wind went straight up into the air, as if on an invisible
elevator.
Interestingly, every migrant flew far to the West– a location very few
migrants are seen to take at this watch, so perhaps they were blown
eastward by the wind over than normal migration pathway.
I found out that GE migrate around 41 miles per day in fall.
Non-raptor Observations:
Common Raven 5.
Predictions:
Light winds 6-9 mph From the West, so we will be there for the same reason
as today, around 10:30 AM.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
Directions to site:
From I-70 from Northeast Denver, take Route 58, then a left turn going
south on Route 6, the 1st exit is for Lookout Mountain Road, turn right and
follow the clothes to find Windy Saddle Park parking lot on the right.
From I-70 from points west of Denver, take the Lookout Mountain Road and
follow it to the Windy Saddle Park parking lot, a longer route.
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