Date: 8/16/26 7:15 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (16 Aug 2026) 8 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 16, 2026
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Observation start time: 09:15:00
Observation end time: 12:45:00
Total observation time: 3.5 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Zak Hepler
Visitors:
Unloading my scope from my car, a bicyclist stopped and asked what I was
doing with my equipment. We had a long chat. He did not know hawks migrate,
and I explained why. He wanted to know what hawks we could see and I told
him we have 14 species possible here. I explained the nationwide network of
active hawk watches and that we report to HMA. He wanted to know if he
could access the data so I told him to look up hawkcount.org. At the watch
around 9 hikers were curious as to what we were looking at. One couple
asked numerous questions once they found out what we were looking for.
Weather:
Another slightly smoky day today with Denver wreathed in smoke, improving
as the morning went on, cool, good cloud cover. There was a 3 degree thick
well-defined smoke layer over Denver. By the second full hour dark clouds
started moving in from the West. There were lightning strikes 7 miles away
but to our according to my app but when it started raining lightly we gave
up the watch.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an SS at 10:45 a.m. DST going east of Lookout
Mountain and below the level of our watch.
Non-migraine Raptors: GE adult 1, CH 1, RT 17, TV 12, AK 1.
I had Zak Hepler, a raptor enthusiast, come to the watch to help me. I
initially met him at Ted Floyd's post-Thanksgiving Day bird trip, and he
had to come for our DFO winter raptor ID trip the next week, after which I
had given participants a list of useful books as well as for those
interested in hawk watching. He told me he had "all the hawk books." So I
suggested he read Paul Kerlinger's Flight Strategies of Migrating Hawks. He
has a good eye for IDing distant raptors, and has the making of a good hawk
watcher.
Non-raptor Observations:
WTSW 15, VGSW 2, NOFLI 1, SPTO 1, BTHU 1, CORA 4, MODO 1, BCCH 1.
Monarch butterfly 1.
Being a weekend there were about 12 paragliders, with seven taking off one
after the other. The ones at 10:00 a.m. DST did not have much lift and
could not even reach our level but by 10:45 a.m. they had good lift.
Predictions:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light and variable wind becoming east 5
to 7 mph in the afternoon.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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