Date: 10/12/26 4:35 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (12 Oct 2026) 8 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 12, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:30:00
Observation end time: 12:00:00
Total observation time: 2.5 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Weather:
Only a slight haze around Denver and beyond indicating a mild subsidence
inversion layer around 4,000 to 8,000 feet above ground level. Closer from
Denver the air was very clear. No cloud cover to start with and only
increasing to 15% which was cumulus clouds which moved in from the West to
cover the North and NE by the last hour giving me a good background to look
for high flying hawks but I could not find any. The subsidence inversion
layer caps thermals from going any higher so that the Soaring Forecast of
the NWS had a lift of 12 ft/sec and the maximum height of thermals only to
9,048 ft AGL. Migrant raptors as well as local ones were scarce today,
perhaps they did not fly because of the cap on the height of thermals. The
indication that the subsidence inversion layer clears up is when the haze
around Denver dissipates and I can see DIA with the naked eye in the
distance, as well as when strong winds come from the direction of Denver
causing a strong ridge lift, which did not really materialize today in that
the WSW winds persisted interspersed with light winds from the East.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was a very high CH at 9:25 a.m. MDT. All the migraine
hawks were found over Lookout Mountain.
Non-migrant raptors: adult GE 1 soaring far to the NW, adult BE, RT 2.
The last hour had no raptors at all, neither migrants nor local.
Predictions:
A slight chance of showers between noon and 3pm, then a chance of showers
and thunderstorms after 3pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 61. Calm wind
becoming east northeast 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon. Chance of
precipitation is 30%.
The winds aloft are going to be from the NNE>NE.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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