Date: 3/8/25 7:24 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (08 Mar 2025) 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 in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch site and the state's second spring watch site.
Many raptors seen c. 1.5 miles to the West from Dinosaur Ridge, may be directly overhead at this site, we are hoping.
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.
Anyone is welcome to join us if they want to see the spectacle of spring raptor migration, whether they know nothing or know a lot regarding identifying raptor species.
Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 08, 2025
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Observation start time: 09:45:00
Observation end time: 17:00:00
Total observation time: 7.25 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Visitors:
Kady Knauf from Texas, a welder, passing through Denver going for work
spent 0.5 hours with us. We were looking at a non-migrant GE with
binoculars, and he managed to find it in my scope! Great for a non-birder.
He was going to Salem, Oregon; so I recommended the very powerful classic
Ursula Le Guin short story 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (Salem
O(regon) reversed)).' We talked about his alliterative name, and I told him
about the character Major Major Major Major from Catch-22 - he took out a
notebook and made notes.
Since it was a weekend and a beautiful day, we had many visitors who asked
the usual questions, and with 4 of them who seemed particularly interested
I discussed raptors conserving energy using soaring in thermals so they
could remain stronger at their breeding grounds. I pointed out that the
petite woman had a big tall strong husband, whom she partly chose likely
for similar reasons as raptors do! I recommended the Merlin app to two
visitors who were curious about birds they saw, one of them downloaded it
immediately. I suggested hawkcount.org to those who seemed interested in
raptors and migration.
One gentleman wanted to know why the North end of North Table Mountain was
closed in spring, which bird were they protecting. Answer= Golden Eagle,
which also nests on South Table Mountain and the Tiers of Zion, a rock
climbing area just north of the watch.
Weather:
There was a fine dusting of snow over the north facing pine trees. There
were interesting longish ice crystals along the path. The higher peaks to
the West were solidly covered with snow.
Light winds from the NNE, changing to the West, slightly chilly but nice in
the bright sunshine, no cloud cover, initial decreased visibility to 6 km
increasing by the 4th hour to clear 39 km (DIA and Mount Blue Sky).
Raptor Observations:
The bird of the day was a juvenile calurus dark morph RT at 11:11 a.m.
which initially looked like a non-migrant flying south then rising and
eventually flying to the NNE taking us about 5 minutes to decide it was a
migrant. GE was an adult at 11:52 p.m..BE was a juvenile (1st year) at
12:52 p.m.
Non-migrant raptors: adult GE, juvenile BE, RT 6 over Lookout Mountain
including 2 very high which would disappear when they banked.
Most of the raptors flew along the Eastern flank of Lookout Mountain or
further east, only the first RT at 10:25 a.m. flew over the middle of and
high over the mountain, and the adult migrant GE flew along the western end
of the mountain directly overhead.
The Soaring Forecast predicted good thermal lift once the trigger
temperature of 40.5°F was reached, and it was predicted to happen at 10:45
a.m., when the lift would be 3 meter/sec up to a thermal height of 13,000
ft!
Some of the raptors which flew in the valley between us and South Table
Mountain to the East appeared to lose lift when flying over the golf
courses and houses.
Non-raptor Observations:
6 paragliders. In the 2-3 p.m. we could see two of them overhead quite high
with the unnaided eye, and a minute later we could not see the higher one
against the blue sky. The diameter of a paraglider is 26 to 39 ft, roughly
4 GE placed wingtip to wingtip, and thus would be difficult to see an
individual raptor way up high.
Townsends Solitaire 1, Black-capped Chickadee 1, Black-billed Magpie 2,
Common Raven 4, American Crow 74 including a flock of 40.
There was a strong 'noon lull' between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. when we saw no
migrant raptors. It used to be thought that they were stopping for lunch,
but research in the 1970s by Gauthreaux et al using a portable radar showed
that they were flying much too high to be visible with optics at the nearby
hawk watch.
Predictions:
Light SW changing to NW winds.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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