Date: 10/16/26 6:05 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (16 Oct 2026) 26 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 16, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:45:00
Observation end time: 15:00:00
Total observation time: 6.25 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
A hiker birder with binoculars and a paper list said he remembered me from
a month ago. 3 birders from Westminster not with binoculars asked me a
number of questions when I explained I was counting migrating raptors. One
of them asserted that Red Tails don't migrate. I explained that they do and
are replaced by others from the north so she thinks they don't. She also
asserted that Ospreys were probably long gone, knowing that females leave
as soon as the chicks are fledged. I told her I had seen one today. She
said she had a Cooper's Hawk in her yard. Another asked me how many hours I
counted a day and how long I was going to count until. I replied we will
continue until the migration of raptors ends, I said I have counted until
the end of the year as well as into the first 3 days in January in New York
at the I-84 Overlook Hawk Watch.
Weather:
High pressure zone over Denver with the usual subsidence inversion layer
causing haziness over Denver with a perfectly blue sky all day. The brown
cloud was seen between the North and the Northeast along the horizon, but
persisting to the NE even when Denver became clear by the 1:00 MDT hour.
Winds as usual started in the SW and changed to the ESE. The winds aloft
were from the SW. Lots of new snow on the 14ers to the West from the cold
front a few days ago.
Raptor Observations:
First migrant was a CH at 10:09 a.m. MDT. Most of the migratory action was
low along the Table Mountains and along the Kestrel Channel and only on the
East end of Lookout Mountain while usually we have migrants over the middle
to the West end of the mountain as well.
Non-migrant raptors: GE 3, CH 1, RT 4. Monarch butterfly 1.
Sandhill Crane 22 over Green Mountain, STJA 1, RECR 1, HAWO 1, BBMA 4, TOSO
1,,GHJU 1, CORA 10, AMCR 1, NOFL 1.
Non-raptor Observations:
11 paragliders, the ones starting at 12:30 PM had no lift, by 1:30 had
moderate left and by 2:00 p.m. were high.
The Soaring Forecast of the NWS predicted lift at 5 ft per second, height
of thermals at 5,614 ft by 12:30 p.m., caused by the subsidence inversion
layer.
Predictions:
Sunny, with a high near 76. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the
afternoon.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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