Date: 9/12/26 10:42 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (12 Sep 2026) 55 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: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 14:00:00
Total observation time: 5 hours
Official Counter: Zak Hepler
Observers: Ajit Antony, Jared Loftis, Jason Walker, Liza Antony
Visitors:
Today's was a DFO trip to Mount Zion Hawk Watch. Ajit, Liza, and I have 5
visitors as part of the trip. Two attendees ended up leaving early due to
illness. We had great help from both Jason and Jared who had keen eyes and
great focus at the watch. This was Jared's second week of birding and he
proved to have the makings of a great hawk watcher (and general birder).
Thank you for everyone who attended the DFO trip today and we hope to see
you at the next Mount Zion trip sometime next month.
Trip attendees aside, we had a steady stream of visitors, but most people
noticed that we were instructing others and left us mostly alone.
Weather:
Beautiful morning to start the watch today. Low 70s and all blue sky.
Hardly any wind at all for the entirety of the watch. Cloud cover started
to slowly increase as the morning progressed. Near the end of the day, the
clouds became darker as more stormy weather hung around the mountains.
Raptor Observations:
First migrant of the day was a SH at 9:24 AM. 13 minutes after that, we had
a beautiful rufous intermediate morph RT migrant that gave good looks to
everyone. Compared to a true dark morph, rufous morphs will have a very
dark belly band, but the upper chest and lower belly will be a dark rusty
color (rufous). It is important to note that these polymorphic RTs belong
to the Western ssp. (calurus).
Most migrants were initially found near the Mesas and Green Mountain. Our
first OS' were all seen within 20 minutes of each other starting at 9:51
AM. A small group of 3 SW migrated together (as they are known to do) at
10:27 AM. It was a very good day for migrants and the birds were steady
throughout the day.
Non-raptor Observations:
First paraglider took off at 9:51 AM. At 10:00 AM we had great views of a
22.5 degree sun halo.
Predictions:
Tomorrow should show similar weather as today with afternoon clouds. We can
expect more Eastern winds and migrants!
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Report submitted by Zak Hepler (<zakhepler...>)
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