Date: 10/9/26 7:13 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (09 Oct 2026) 24 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 09, 2026
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 08:30:00
Observation end time: 12:30:00
Total observation time: 4 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Weather:
Mild haze around Denver, perfectly blue sky initially 20% and 35% cloud
cover in the last 2 hours respectively all of which was cumulus clouds
coming in from the West.
Raptor Observations:
The first raptor was a local RT in the Kestrel Channel. The first migrant
was only seen by 10:18 a.m. MDT which was a UR extremely distant to the
SE.
Most of the migratory activity was over Lookout Mountain.
A migrating AK was seen diving on an RT.
The GE was missing an outer primary and many secondaries.
The Soaring Forecast of the NWS was excellent with lift of 18 ft/second and
height of thermals by 10:45 a.m. MDT of 13,018 ft AGL - more than a mile
above the watch.
Once hawks began showing up they came through the regular channels though
much farther off. This is probably because of a mild inversion layer caused
by the high pressure zone keeping the height of the thermals low, i.e. blue
sky thermals, and I guessed that once the haze around Denver cleared up,
hawks would fly at the maximum height of thermals and we wouldn't see them
at all, but I was wrong - we kept seeing small numbers of hawks every hour
migrating. I was telling Liza that when there is a strong ridge lift as
there was in the last 2 hours with gusts to Level 5 (18-24 mph), in
addition to the primary mountain standing wave there is also a secondary
wave to the lee side/west, so we were scanning the clouds for any raptors
there which we did not find.
Non-migrant raptors: SS 1, RT 2. A TV in the last hour was found high to
the South rising ever higher, moving to the South, we had to watch it for
10 minutes in turn because our shoulders hurt holding binoculars, until it
went East and then Northeast!
Non-raptor Observations:
2 paragliders at 11:15 a.m., a tandem one which had no lift at all, and a
single one which had moderate lift. One at noon had only moderate lift.
Predictions:
Increasing clouds, with a high near 82. West southwest wind 5 to 7 mph
becoming south in the afternoon. The winds aloft are predicted to come from
the SW.
========================================================================
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
This is an automated email report from hawkcount.org. If you do not wish to receive these reports,
please send email to <unsubscribe...> to unsubscribe.
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To post to this group, send email to <cobirds...>
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate.
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/ ---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+<unsubscribe...>
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/<010101a1239650aa-d9084079-3e0a-48ba-bacc-348759642942-000000...>
