Date: 9/26/26 4:07 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (26 Sep 2026) 17 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: 08:15:00
Observation end time: 11:30:00
Total observation time: 3.25 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Visitors:
5 visitors were interested in what we were doing.Jacqui Ainlay-Conley the
Museum Director of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave came and was wondering
what we were doing. We explained that Colorado has had no fall hawk watch,
and that we came from the Hudson Valley in New York 1 hour north of New
York City from where within 3 hours we could visit at least 15 hawk
watches! We explained that we normally count on top of Mount Zion, the road
to which was closed today. She thought that her superiors at Denver
Mountain Parks would be interested, and wanted their naturalist to get in
contact with us.
Weather:
After the rain yesterday there was minimal haze in the air, completely
cloudless initially but by 10:30 a.m. MDT small and then larger thermal
clouds formed and pushed in from the West, coming overhead and to the east
giving us a good backdrop to look for migrants which were few today. One
reason could be explained by the Soaring Forecast of the NWS which had lift
predicted at 15 ft per second, and height of thermals by 11:00 a.m. to be
11,827 ft AGL!
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an RT at 9:27 a.m. MDT which came from the NNW, a
binocular bird at moderate height. Around 10:15 a.m. we saw a juvenile GE
which needed a scope to age it (white at the base of the tail, no white on
the primaries, and no carpal bar) to the NNW and it seemed not to be a
migrant, we saw it again 5 minutes later still a non-migrant, and at 10:30
a.m. we saw, presumably the same GE, far to the NE now definitely a migrant
going SE through the Gap. At 11:10 a.m. we saw an adult GE over North Table
Mountain, missing a right 7th primary and had a full crop migrated over
South Table Mountain through the Gap closer to Green Mountain. An adult BE
far to the north moved South and overtook another adult BE which turned out
to be a non-migrant.
Non-migrant raptors: adult GE 1, adult BE 1 which we had to follow for 10
minutes with binoculars as it kept going higher and seeming to migrate
before it decided to go NW, RT 3.
Most of the migrant raptors in the 11:00 mdtr came very high overhead to
the NE. Has anyone heard of 'raptor neck' (like warbler neck in the East)?
Non-raptor Observations:
Part of the way up Lookout Mountain Road there was a barrier across the
road. The road was closed for a in both directions leading to Mount Zion,
so we had to go all the way around to the Buffalo Bill Museum, our
alternate site at 39.7337, -105.2385 at 7375 feet, around 200 ft higher
than Mount Zion Hawk Watch. From here, both the Lookout Mountains looked
'quite close' as well as Green Mountain which is in actuality 4 miles away!
Predictions:
A 20 percent chance of showers after 5pm. Increasing clouds, with a high
near 81. Calm wind becoming east southeast 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon.
The winds aloft are expected to be from the SW.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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