Date: 11/4/24 7:17 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (04 Nov 2024) 9 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: Nov 04, 2024
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 11:30:00
Observation end time: 15:30:00
Total observation time: 4 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
A young woman asked me "Seen anything cool?" "Migrating hawks" I replied,
with silence from her, 10 minutes later she said she didn't see any hawks
as she usually sees them easily. I explained migrating raptors often fly
quite high requiring binoculars to see them. She mentioned Cooper's Hawk
and I told her that she knew more than 95% of hikers at this spot. She said
she wasn't very good at identifying hawks. I suggested, and showed her the
free Raptor ID app, the Merlin app, and suggested she come for DFO trips.
She took down the information.
Weather:
The forecast was for light NNE winds with 90% cloud cover dropping. At the
watch, there was 4 inches of snow on the ground, wind was from the WNW>NNW,
temperature 8-2°C, cloud cover 100%>85%>35%>55%, initial limited
visibility due to snow flurries 28 km, and increasing the next hour to 39
km so that DIA could be seen gleaming in the sunlight, far to the east. By
12 PM sunshine could be seen over Boulder and gradually extended southward
to Denver, with slivers of blue sky showing in the NE which gradually
expanded and the clouds broke up.
Looking at earth.nullschool.net there were 26 Km per hour winds aloft
coming from the North, but further to the West of the watch, as well as
North winds east of Denver at 42 km/h, with a lull in between, so some
migrants could be seen.
Raptor Observations:
NNE winds were new for this watch. I re-read my notes from having a long
video chat with Bryan Guarente the meteorologist and birder, in 2023, where
he said that he thought the best raptor flights could be on N or NNE winds,
but they were not common in Denver in fall.
This was a very strange migration today. The 1st migrant was only at 12:49
PM, an SS over Lookout Mountain. At 1 PM an older juvenile NH (with the
coloration of an adult male but with a brown instead of a gray dorsal
wings) came in quite low from the West and flew SE. In the next 20 minutes
I had 6 other NH, 5 of them in the West flying southward, then flying east
over Lookout Mountain and then flying south or SSE, then no more. At 2:42
PM I saw a flock of 15 crows to the SW, and using my spotting scope to
count their number, saw a much large bird– a GE which migrated!
Non-raptor Observations:
Oregon Junco 1, Common Raven 1, American Crow 28.
Predictions:
Strong SW winds at 13 mph with gusts to 22 mph, windchill 40°F at 10:30 AM
with a windchill high of 44°F. I'll give it a try to see if SW winds push
any migrants from further west toward the watch.
========================================================================
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.
This is an automated email report from hawkcount.org. If you do not wish to receive these reports,
please send email to <unsubscribe...> to unsubscribe.
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To post to this group, send email to <cobirds...>
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate.
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/ ---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+<unsubscribe...>
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/<01010192fa1e50a9-7743f8e9-68a2-44a6-8cd2-3d43d959da54-000000...>
