Date: 8/28/26 8:04 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (28 Aug 2026) 48 Raptors
Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
To see hourly weather data and details of migrant raptors, look up this watch at hawkcount.org.
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 if you are interested.
See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk
Daily Raptor Counts: Aug 28, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:15:00
Observation end time: 15:00:00
Total observation time: 6.75 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
In the morning an older hiker ask me if I were bird watching and I
explained what I was looking for. He wanted to know if I was a professor
here. I said I am a retired urologist and I counted migrant hawks even
while I was working, even in the pre-cell phone era carrying a pager! He
said a bird would call outside his window and he did not know what it was
for years, and finally he was able to figure out it was a black capped
chickadee using the birdnet app. I told him about Merlin, and he put it on
his phone. I explained what the scope does for me, and let him look at one
of the antenna through it.
A young woman said Pretty cool when I told her what I was doing.
As I was shouldering my backpack to leave 3 young men came up and of course
wanted to know what I was doing. They were from Ramsey New Jersey which is
only 45 minutes from where I used to live in NY. Two of them were visiting
the one who lives now in Denver. When I explained, they could not believe
that raptors migrated as far as Argentina. I showed them the range map. And
back in spring as well, I told them. They had innumerable questions such as
can I make out all the 16 species we can see here? I said I wouldn't be
here if I couldn't! They want to know the fastest raptors. PG and GE in a
stoop. One of them noticed a raptor easily visible in flight. I was able to
show them the white translucent windows of a juvenile RT. 15 minutes later
I was finally able to leave. They wanted a photograph with me and asked 2
others who were up there to take a picture. One of them said to make us
smile "Say red-tailed hawk," having listened to my conversation with the 3
men, he admitted.
Weather:
The by now usual wildfire smoke over Denver but not over the horizon. It
was cool when the wind blew, and sweaty and hot when it did not. There was
a large cloud to the east and south temporarily and intermittently blocking
off the Sun.At different times during the day there was virga in many
different. I heard thunder from the South and it was around 10 mi away past
the watch. There was 5 minutes of light drizzle at the beginning of the
11:00 MST hour and a few drops 2 hours later. Rain that was initially
predicted for noon did not show up at all in any significance.
Raptor Observations:
The first raptor found was a migrant below the crest of Green Mountain,
while I was looking at 2 CORA, followed by 2 more along the same flight
channel 1 and 4 minutes later. Green Mountain north end is 3.6 miles from
this watch, and it is fortunate that it is treeless, with a smooth looking
warm brown color of mainly grassland with scattered groups of shrubs, not
that it's really easy finding raptors that distant against the face of the
mountain, but is far preferable to trying to find them against the trees
and houses between the watch and Denver.
A majority of the migrants were found somewhere in relation to Lookout
Mountain, especially the east end with the antennae. Some were found flying
either over Green Mountain or west of Green Mountain which would be over
the Dinosaur Ridge hawk watch which we cannot see from this location
because of Lookout Mountain. A CH was fortuitously discovered west of the
West-most antenna on Lookout Mountain while I was looking at 2 TV.
Non-migrant raptors: RT mainly in groups of 2, 3, 4 a total of 12, with
pairs of them chasing each other; TV 16 including 14 at one time with two
RT over Lookout Mountain, none of whom turn out to be migrants after
watching them for 10 minutes though some of them seem to fly in the right
direction before turning around.
The last 0.5 hours was the only time period without any migrants, until the
last 4 minutes when 2 TV went through.
The flight paths I could see today were just east of Lookout Mountain,
around the easternmost 2 antenna on Lookout Mountain going directly SSE,
from the same location going towards the SSW/SW flying over most of Lookout
Mountain, and either over Green Mountain or just west of Green Mountain
i.e. over the location of the Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch.
Non-raptor Observations:
BGGN 1, ROWR 1, BTHU 1, WEBL 1, GTTO 1, RBNU 1, WTSW 3, MOCH 1, SPTO 1,
WBNU 1 interior West subspecies.
Two young women hikers found elk in a clearing on Lookout Mountain and
showed us. There were 5. Of course, they wanted to know whether I was a
researcher, and I explained.
Predictions:
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7pm. Mostly cloudy,
with a low around 66. West wind 5 to 8 mph. The winds aloft are predicted
to be light from the WNW>NW>S.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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