Date: 9/18/26 6:59 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (18 Sep 2026) 35 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: 13:30:00
Total observation time: 5.5 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Visitors:
Liza talked to 2 walkers about raptor migration, and about Hawkcount which
she put on her phone. A hiker asked us if we had seen anything good.
Another hiker thought it was Very cool what we were doing. While scanning
with binoculars I heard a young voice saying Excuse me, what are you
looking at? It was a 7-year-old first grader Porter Johnson with his
mother. I explained that we were counting hawks and eagles which migrated
south for the winter, and asked him why he thought they migrated. The cold,
he said. I explained that they had feathers to keep them warm, and what
other need did they have? Food. Correct, what happens when there are 2-3
feet of snow on the ground, how will they feed? They're not stupid, they
won't stay there and die. That's why they migrate, that some of them go as
far as Argentina which is 6,000 miles away which is twice the width of the
USA, and that an RT has the wingspan longer than he was tall! I told him he
knows something that his classmates would not know, and to tell his teacher
he came to a hawk watch. His mother had taken a picture of a hawk near
their house, I explained how to identify it was an RT. I asked if they had
an open space near the house, as RT are hawks of open spaces, and they did
have a Denver Open Space next to them. She said she was encouraging Porter
if he saw something interesting to go and ask questions. I told her that we
had two grandchildren his age, and they ask us questions all the time.
Weather:
Very clear air today with Denver downtown easily visible though with a
little haziness to the NE of Denver. Good cloud cover with cirrus to the
east and altocumulus to the east and west varying between 60 and 85%.
Initially cool, hot when the sun came out, and cool and comfortable when
dark cumulus clouds came in from the West. By 2:00 p.m. we had a complete
ring of cumulus clouds around us - a narrow band of cumulus clouds to the
north and east, with heavy broad clouds South and West. There were a few
fine drops of rain in the last 30 minutes and we saw stick lightning to the
SW which we've never seen here, and we got out as fast as we could. Thunder
kept rumbling on our way down and 5 minutes later My Lightning app showed
lightning strikes in Golden only 5 miles away.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was a Prairie Falcon at 9:22 a.m. MST found over North
Table Mountain, flew toward us, then toward Green Mountain. The last 15
minutes of this hour was magical with a BW was easily seen just to the
South followed by 2 immediately at eye level soaring 15 ft from us, then 6
more to the South, none needing binoculars for except for the last one
which was low to the South, flew to Lookout Mountain, then dropped and
gradually made its way the entire length to the east. It could easily have
gone to the west and gone straight over if it's new better, except that the
winds were from the west and pushed it eastward.
For the last 3 hours migrant raptors were few, so we scanned high over
Lookout Mountain but did not see any that high.
Non-migrant raptors: a juvenile dark morph RT we've seen before, seen 3
times today "escorting" migrant RT; an adult dark morph RT missing a right
8th primary; 2 GE adult to the North and NW; TV 8; RT 3.
Non-raptor Observations:
3 paragliders together at 11:15 a.m., all tandem, so likely novices being
instructed, had very good lift getting quite high so they were just barely
visible to the naked eye.
The Soaring Forecast of the NWS was for good lift at 9 ft per second with
the height of thermals only 7,563 ft AGL as a result of an inversion layer,
cooler surface temperature and cold air advection. However many of the
raptors were flying at level 4 and level 5 and even level 6 helped by
orographic/ridge lift; also individual thermal columns have an
ultra-intense thermal core where the upward velocity is much stronger than
the surrounding air, and raptors possess specialized sensory
capabilities�detecting minute changes in wind torque and
acceleration�allowing them to lock onto these tight cores gaining greater
height; if there is moisture present the top of the thermal begins to
condense into cumulus clouds releasing latent heat, which gives the air
current a second burst of energy, acting like a vacuum that pulls air and
the hawks riding it much higher into the atmosphere.
STJA 6, WTSW 47, NOFL 1, MOBL 3, MOCH 1, AMCR 1, CORA 4, SPTO 1, RBNU 2,
BBMA 1, BTHU 1, BGGN 1, PYNU 3.
Predictions:
A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2pm, increasing clouds, with a
high near 74. Calm wind becoming north northwest 5 to 7 mph in the
afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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