Date: 9/21/26 7:34 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (21 Sep 2026) 82 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: 07:45:00
Observation end time: 14:00:00
Total observation time: 6.25 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Visitors:
Michael K. of South Platt Park who was a volunteer counter at Dinosaur
Ridge Hawk Watch from 2011 to 2013 had seen our reports on COBirds and came
up for about an hour.
A couple asked whether we were birding, and I explained. She wanted to know
how many raptors we had seen, and I said 61, and she said I'm jealous. To
console her, I said that they were quite far and she wouldn't have been
able to see most of them without binoculars.
Weather:
Denver was completely hazy today due to 10� inversion layer over the
horizon. There were cumulus clouds both to the east as well as to the west
going from 45% to 25% to 60% and back to 20%. Cool and pleasant all day.
Raptor Observations:
Another great Swainson's Hawk day, which started with Liza finding 3 buteos
overhead and a little to the north of us, which she promptly identified as
SW - 2 juveniles with light heads and an adult with a dark head. As they
streamed toward the SW, remembering what we did with BW in New York, I
looked ahead of them and sure enough there were more. In the next 10
minutes we had 47 SW streaming and kettling!
As of today we have counted 176 SW for the season which is the highest
compared to all the spring season counts since 1990 - 99 more SW than the
highest seasonal total of 77 counted in 2023! This may be a fall migration
phenomenon.
An adult female AK flew straight at us at eye level from the north and
veered only 20 ft from us, We had 3 single BW, 2 "local TV" I found over
North Table Mountain which when they came closer Liza correctly identified
as adult GE, one of which was a non-migrant and dove from a great height
into Clear Creek Canyon and then flew NW, the other was a migrant at 2:02
p.m. MDT which had a molting/missing left inner primary. A migrant CH dove
onto a migrant AK near it and then both continued migrating South.
Non-migrant raptors: GE 2 one of which glided at eye level to the east of
us seeming to be a migrant, dropped below the top of Lookout Mountain and
then flew back out to the NE, RT 3, TV 5.
Non-raptor Observations:
2 tandem paragliders had no lift at 10:30 a.m. DST, not even reaching our
height, while at 12:15 p.m. 3 paragliders had excellent lift going really
high, going far to the North where we could just about see them without
binoculars.
The Soaring Forecast of the NWS had good lift at 11 feet per second, and
height of thermals at 8,684 ft AGL.
Predictions:
A slight chance of showers between noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 78.
Calm wind becoming east 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
The winds aloft are predicted to be light coming from the SW to the West.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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