Date: 9/25/26 7:28 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (25 Sep 2026) 65 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: Crystal Wilson, Liza Antony
Visitors:
Crystal Wilson of Englewood had been following our reports on COBirds, and
seeing 50 TV flying south over her house, decided to come to the watch, and
found us some raptors. We were able to show her 3 adult GE together, and
how to distinguish GE adult from immature, and CH ID.
Sabrina Chande a ranger with Jeffco, cleaning up. She asked what we were
looking at, and told us that Jeffco has a hawk watch. We said we know about
Dinosaur Ridge as we've helped count there. We explained that this is
Colorado's only fall hawk watch, which she was surprised at. We told her
that Jeffco now has the only 2 hawk watches in Colorado.
6 hikers were interested in what we were doing. I was able to show one of
them a TV on an antenna and one flying around it. We showed another couple
a flying Golden Eagle which they hadn't seen before.
Weather:
Denver and beyond was hazy. 100% cloud cover with altostratus and
stratocumulus. They were large very dark cumulus clouds which passed to the
NW and the SW, thanks to the effect of Clear Creek Canyon just north of the
watch, the storms bypass the watch largely. In the last 2 hours we could
see dark clouds far to the west and rain falling. At 2:00 p.m. the rain
came closer and we could hear thunder. My Lightning app showed numerous
lightning strikes 13 miles NW, so we left, especially because there were
100 lightning strikes due West of us at Idaho Springs 17 miles away which
looked like they were going to come directly over the watch.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrants were 2 BW adults at 9:30 a.m. MDT seen initially to the
NE, came overhead and then went toward the SE. In the next hour the
majority of the migrants went through the Gap, closer to Green Mountain
than Lookout Mountain.
We saw a migrant CH dive on an immature RT in the Kestrel Channel, then
dive on it when it first on a tree. An AK dove on an NH, both migrants.
2 adult GE at 12:38 p.m.
Non-migrant raptors: 4 adult GE, 3 just below the top of Lookout Mountain,
one of which had a few secondaries missing. Immature GE 1.
Non-raptor Observations:
A tandem paraglider and four others at 10:30 a.m. at no lift but by 11:45
they were able to go high.
Predictions:
Sunny, with a high near 80. West wind 8 to 13 mph becoming light and
variable. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph.
The winds aloft are predicted to come from the West and after 1:00 p.m.
from the East.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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