Date: 9/16/26 7:45 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (16 Sep 2026) 51 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:
Aaron Lefland from Connecticut who lives near Lighthouse Point Hawk Watch
and has visited there, was in Denver for a conference on Land Management,
looked up eBird hotspots and found the Mount Zion Hawk Watch (which Zak
Hepler had recently requested hotspot designation), so we found him at the
watch when we got there, he helped us find a number of raptors, we in turn
helped him learn to identify raptors in flight. He had a number of
passerine lifers today.
Weather:
Less hazy over Denver then the day before, again caused by an inversion
layer we could see as a brown haze to the Northeast which gradually moved
South. Cool, breezy and pleasant all day, winds from the ESE changing to
ENE, cloud cover 30% increasing to 85% mainly cirrus in the morning with
cumulus coming in from the West as usual by the afternoon, clear visibility
initially only 5 km and increasing only to 19 km.
Raptor Observations:
The first two migrants were AK along the Kestrel Channel way below us at
9:39 a.m. MDT. In addition to AK, RT (mainly local) were seen along the
channel, as did all the Steller's Jay seen.
At 10:46 a.m. a migrant juvenile dark morph RT promptly IDed by Liza.
Non-migrant raptors: AK 2, CH 1, RT 4, TV 6.
Non-raptor Observations:
Two paragliders at 10:00 a.m. had no lift, 8 after 11:00 a.m. had none to
moderate left while by 11:45 a.m. some of them were really high, barely
visible to the eye.
CAWR 1 calling, STJA 12, VGSW 4, WTSW 6, NOFL 1, SPTO 1, AMRO 1, AMCR 1,
CORA an unkindness or conspiracy of 26, HAWO 1, BLJA 1.
Because of the inversion layer, lift was very poor at 2 ft per second with
the predicted maximum height of thermal 5,114 ft AGL, though the migrants
were flying much much higher. As we say, they hadn't read the prediction.
Predictions:
A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Mostly
cloudy, with a high near 78. Calm wind becoming east northeast around 6 mph
in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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