Date: 10/17/26 9:14 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (17 Oct 2026) 31 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 17, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 5 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Lauren Friesen, Liza Antony
Visitors:
When we were discussing local geology as to the organic origin of the 2
Table Mountains, paleontology such as the K-T (now renamed K-Pg) which was
first described in 1941 at the south end of South Table Mountain, the
extinction of the dinosaurs and proofs adduced by Walter and Luis Alvarez
40 years later of the asteroid impact, that a T-Rex tooth was found in the
late 1800s 40 years before the animal was so of course no one knew what it
was, the first Stegosaurus fossil was found at Dinosaur Ridge, I saw a
number of hikers listening in. Two hikers asked questions about what we
were looking at, and we explained what a hawk watch is, that there are
about 76 active hawk watches this fall from Canada through the US, through
Central America, to South America, most manned by volunteers like us,
reporting to the Hawk Migration Association HMA website at hawkcount.org,
that researchers can use our data to decide whether certain species are
increasing or decreasing and to decide on conservation measures.
Weather:
Mild haze around Denver and beyond to the East which finally cleared up by
the 12:00 MDT hour though the brown cloud persisted far to the NE.
Raptor Observations:
A beautiful adult Ferruginous Hawk at 9:24 a.m. easily visible to the naked
eye kited over North Table Mountain for a long time giving us excellent
views, and for us to indicate all the identification features.
An adult GE migrated at 12:58 p.m.
The majority of hawks migrated over the North and South Table Mountains,
through Clear Creek Canyon, through the Kestrel Channel, and some over the
Eastern end of Lookout Mountain, but almost none over the mid and West end
of Lookout Mountain.
Today we had a DFO hawk watching trip with 9 participants who proved the
old adage that the more observers at a hawk watch the greater the number of
hawks found. Two young men Kolya and Vincenzo sat facing Clear Creek Canyon
to the north and found us a few accipiters way below the watch we would
never have found on our own, given our tendency to look to the east where
most of the raptors are. Lauren Friesen was very helpful finding and
identifying a number of hawks. She was on one of our winter raptor DFO
trips last winter making detailed notes of everything we told them about
the hawks we saw. We had recommended Hawks in Flight, Hawks From Every
Angle, and Hawks at a Distance which she got, we had also recommended that
she go to Dinosaur Ridge last spring where she volunteered improving her ID
skills. The others were instrumental in finding us hawks as well. They
especially appreciated seeing SS followed by CH. I told them that that was
the most difficult ID for hawkwatchers especially in the western US uwhere
CH tend to be smaller than Eastern CH so their flight style overlaps with
that of SS.
Non-migrant raptors: RT 3. TV 2.
Non-raptor Observations:
Paragliders began only at 1:15 p.m. and got excellent lift. The Soaring
Forecast of the NWS had lift in thermals at 7.5 ft/second with height of
thermals 6621 ft AGL by 1:35 p.m.
Monarch butterfly 1.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S403236928
Predictions:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. West wind 5 to 9 mph becoming east in
the morning. Winds could gust as high as 15 mph.
The winds aloft are predicted to come mainly from the NE.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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