Date: 9/1/26 5:52 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (01 Sep 2026) 14 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
Observation start time: 08:30:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 4.5 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Visitors:
3 hikers asked what we were doing, but weren't interested and asking any
more questions.
Weather:
Cool and pleasant after the rain last evening, which wasn't a front going
through but a "monsoonal moisture plume" which is a narrow stream of humid
subtropical air flowing from south and east. As a result there was an
overcast sky initially gradually improving. Cirrus, alto- and
strato-cumulus clouds. A slight haziness around Denver probably because of
residual moisture in the air. Very clear air today, so the sun felt very
hot. Light winds from the East.
Raptor Observations:
The first raptor was a migrant OS at 9:45 a.m. DST, with another OS at a
different location migrating in a different direction 4 minutes later. 22
minutes later two more OS seen migrating together. A 5th OS at a great
height and a great distance in the 11:00 MST hour migrating. In the same
hour I was observing a distant hawk when I saw a shadow passing near using
my peripheral vision, and it turned out to be an adult Swainson's Hawk
which joined another one and they migrated together.
Non-migrant raptors: from yesterday we began counting RT and TV hourly and
selecting the highest number seen in any hour as we were enumerating too
many of them probably from repeat observations over Lookout Mountain. RT 7
with one tail-chasing a CORA, TV 13 including a group of 3 with one diving
frequently on another, CH 1.
Non-raptor Observations:
Paragliders 9, starting 10:30 a.m. with excellent lift going very high. The
Soaring Forecast of the NWS predicted lift at 10 ft per second but
surprisingly the height of thermals was only 9,449 ft above ground level. I
looked it up and the reason is that the wet ground from the rain yesterday
would not heat up, as well as the rain could cause a layer of cool air at
ground level as well as a subsidence inversion layer aloft limiting the
height of thermals.
BGGN 1, WTSW 15, VGSW 5, WOSJ 1, GTTO 1, WEBL6, SPTO 1, HAWO 1, NOFL 1,
BTHU3.
Predictions:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 86. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming east in
the afternoon.
The winds aloft are predicted light from the SSW changing to ESE.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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