Date: 8/8/26 6:44 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (08 Aug 2026) 1 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 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.
See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk
Daily Raptor Counts: Aug 08, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:45:00
Observation end time: 12:00:00
Total observation time: 3.25 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
Many hikers were interested. When I got there a young man said it was a
great view, and I said that's why we chose this spot for the hawk watch
with unobstructed views in all directions. A young couple were interested
in what I was doing and we discussed counting migrant raptors, which they
thought was Awesome. We discussed the particulate matter in the air and
ozone levels. He asked if I were a geographer, and I said hawk watchers
need to know meteorology as well as local air quality to know when to wear
masks. He said he worked with children and some days they wouldn't allow
them to play outside. I showed them two distant TVs which I could see with
binoculars, and suggested they could probably see them naked-eye because of
their youth, and sure enough they could. That's so cool, they said. An
older hiker asked me what I was taking pictures of, and I explained that
this was a 'scope, and what I was doing. Two women with him asked numerous
questions about raptor migration and why they do so, flocking rehavior of
raptors, use of thermals by raptors, and the 14 species of raptors we could
see here, and that wherever possible I tried to separate them as to
adult/immature and male/female. Two young men I could see were listening
intently, and after the 3 hikers went off, the young men said that they
found what I had said was fascinating, and we discussed it further. A young
man who had just moved from Texas 3 days ago, doing postgraduate work in
geology at the School of Mines, the engineering school in Golden, Colorado,
asked me if this was a trail going NE down from the top of Mount Zion. I
said it probably led to the windsock and the spot where paragliders take
off from. On his way back we chatted for a long time about my interest in
geology and paleontology- I told him about the importance of South Table
Mountain being the first place in the world that the K-T (now called K-Pg)
boundary was described, which marks when the asteroid hit the earth that
ended the reign of the dinosaurs, where the first T.Rex tooth was found 40
years before the first T.Rex fossil was identified, so they had no idea
what it was.
I realized that my function at the watch when there are not many migrant
raptors is to be an educator and get people to open their minds to hawks
and their migration.
Weather:
The high was expected to be 100�F, which I took to mean that there was
going to be less smoke from wildfires in the air, and there was minimally
less smoke, though there was a layer of smoke covering Denver downtown
which I could barely see. PM <10 and PM <2.5 were both in the moderate
range, and ground level ozone was high. Because of the higher cloud cover
of altocumulus floccus stratiformis and altostratus it was intermittently
cooler when their shadows came over the watch. By 10:00 a.m. MST the local
winds from the ENE overpowered the winds from the West, which I could still
feel on the west side of the top of Mount Zion, showing it was still there.
Raptor Observations:
I counted no migrants today though I scanned with binoculars assiduously
and systematically. However there was a lot of local raptor activity and
sightings: adult GE 1, CH 2, RT 8 including 4 together, TV 10, the 1st of
which was aloft at 10:08 a.m. DST.
Non-raptor Observations:
Common Nighthawk migrants 3, Rock Wren 1, WBNU 1, AMCR 3, CORA 1.
Predictions:
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 3pm. Areas
of smoke. Partly sunny, with a high near 96. West wind 5 to 8 mph becoming
northeast in the morning.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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