Date: 9/9/26 7:26 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (09 Sep 2026) 58 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: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 5 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Weather:
Wildfire smoke extending from DIA to the N and S Table Mountains, cirrus
clouds 15-35% over Lookout Mountain from the ENE to SSW where the migrants
would fly. Unusually, very few cumulus clouds developed in the West, taking
till 11:30 a.m. DST for the first ones to develop. Cool breeze. The air was
quite grainy with blurry looking hawks through my scope.
Raptor Observations:
At the end of today we have counted 78 SW which is higher than any total
spring count since 1990!
On my way up the steps to the watch at 9:11 a.m. DST I could see 2 AK, then
2 RT over the watch which were the first migrants.
An adult FH fortuitously showed up in my scope while I was looking at a
distant migrating OS over Lookout Mountain. 2 adult SW today.
Most of the migrants as usual flew over Lookout Mountain with a few going
through the gap between it and Green Mountain.
An issue I tried to figure out today was where are the migrants after 1:00
p.m. DST. For a change there was no risk of thunderstorms or rain, and
fortuitously there were large cirrus clouds extending from the SW to the
East as well as overhead, and from the North to the NE extending to the
East which I could use in the last 2 hours to check for migrants. I scanned
high especially. At 1:00 p.m. DST an. OS migrated 10� above Lookout
Mountain between antenna # 2 and 3 (counting from the East). At 1:15 p.m. 2
local RT were 12� above Lookout Mountain. In the last 0.5 hours scanning
high to the NE over North Lookout Mountain I was able to binocular find 2
CH and 2 AK. While I was watching 3 TV to the right/West of the Westernmost
antenna on Lookout Mountain I saw an AK migrating through.
Non-migrant raptors: RT 3, TV 6.
While watching an AK twice going along the Kestrel Channel, dropping toward
the lowest part of the North face of Lookout Mountain, where one was
attacked by an RT when another AK I hadn't noticed before dove on the RT;
and another instance where a different AK was joined by another AK which I
hadn't seen before, suggesting to me that there may be hawks going into the
Kestrel Channel had a distance from the watch, i.e. not naked eye. I'll
have to keep observing if this is consistent.
Non-raptor Observations:
6 paragliders had excellent lift going high over the mountains to the
north.
The Soaring Forecast of the NWS predicted lift at 6 ft per second and
thermal height only 5739 ft AGL, though the trigger temperature of 80.3� F
/ 26.8� C was to be predictably reached only by 3:45 p.m. DST.
ROWR 1,WTSW 7, BBMA 1, RBNU 1, STJA 12, SPTO 1, CORA 16, VGSW 3.
Predictions:
Sunny, with a high near 83. Light and variable wind becoming east southeast
5 to 7 mph in the afternoon. The winds aloft at the level hawks would
migrate are very light from the SSW>S>SE>E.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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