Date: 9/11/26 6:54 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (11 Sep 2026) 49 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: 14:00:00
Total observation time: 6 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
Two older hikers had numerous questions for me starting with what I was
watching, hawk migration, I told them about Hawkcount and how researchers
can use the data from all the active hawk watches, they wanted to know how
often I was counting, the number of years I have counted, whether all of it
was in Colorado, the number of species I could see and telling migrants
versus non-migrants, the time of fall migration, when we started counting.
Another hiker said Very cool when I explained what I was looking for.
Weather:
Cool and pleasant especially in the afternoon when the sun was completely
covered by clouds, minimum Wildfire smoke haze only at the basis of the
buildings of downtown Denver and extending along a low-lying area to the NE
horizon, cirrus clouds to the East and cumulus from the West to the NE
initially, spreading over most of the sky. Winds were light to moderate
from the ESE, though the winds aloft came from the West.
Raptor Observations:
It took almost a whole hour to see the first migrants which were 2 CH at
9:57 a.m. DST. A migrant RT at 10:14 a.m. was already 10� above the
left/East end of Lookout Mountain.
In the last 2 hours I used the clouds to scan higher than the raptors were
migrating earlier to see if they were flying very much higher, I only found
one AK. 2 local RT at 1:45 p.m. were soaring 10� above Lookout Mountain.
In the last hour I had only one migrant RT and as I was about to leave
found an AK struggling up the North face of Lookout Mountain, then catching
a ridge lift going straight up well over the ridge and to the South.
Non-migrating raptors: RT 2 including the dark morph juvenile we've seen
before, TV 5.
Non-raptor Observations:
One paraglider at noon who had no lift whatsoever. The Soaring Forecast of
the NWS was for lift at 9 ft per second and height of thermals at 11,325 ft
AGL.
WTSW 75 in a single flock!! SPTO 1, MOCH 1, CORA 1.
In the morning beyond Denver I could see a tall vertical flame without
optics, probably burning waste gases at the Suncor refinery. Also a white
balloon with something blue like fabric hanging below it slowly ascending.
a Stratollite balloon, a high-altitude balloon system that operates similar
to a weather balloon but much more sophisticated in design and can be
remotely navigated to certain areas, capable of staying aloft for days,
weeks, or months at a time
Predictions:
A slight chance of showers between 2pm and 3pm, then a slight chance of
showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 82.
North northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming east southeast in the afternoon.
Chance of precipitation is 20%.
The winds aloft at a level Raptors would migrate at is expected to start
from the north and change to the east.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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