Date: 10/7/26 7:45 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (07 Oct 2026) 28 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
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 07, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:30:00
Observation end time: 12:30:00
Total observation time: 4 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Visitors:
One visitor asked what we were looking at and thanked to me when I told
him.
Weather:
Haze around Denver with a brown layer above the horizon representing a
subsidence inversion (with PM 10 at a high level) which gradually cleared.
Starting cloud cover cirrocumulus 35% which dissipated, with 20% at the end
all cumulus far to the West. Cool all day especially out of the sun.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an NH at 9:54 a.m. MDT. A group of 6 TV migrating
together had to flap a lot while they were circling in a thermal. The high
pressure zone over Denver created the subsidence inversion layer, which in
turn kept thermals low until the layer dissipated, keeping the hawks at the
level that we could find them, though the Soaring Forecast was for
excellent lift at 15 ft per second with the height of thermals to 10,546
ft. AGL by 12:45 p.m. MDT.
Non-migrant raptors: GE adult was dived on by a CORA, RT 6 one of which was
carrying a stick in the Kestrel Channel followed by another adult RT
perhaps reinforcing pair bonds, TV 1.
Non-raptor Observations:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S400164169 2 paraglider at 11:00 a.m. had no lift whatsoever staying low above the
Coors Brewery, 1 at noon had moderate lift. A single hang glider had more
than moderate lift.
Predictions:
Sunny, with a high near 83. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming east in the
afternoon.
The winds I left are predicted to start in the West, change to the SE then
East.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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