Date: 10/21/26 7:18 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (21 Oct 2026) 15 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 21, 2026
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Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 4 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony
Visitors:
2 hikers asked whether we had seen any eagles, and I replied - 2.
Overheard conversation between 2 hikers. Man - I don't know any of the
native birds. I heard chirping. Woman ( confidently) - It was probably a
sparrow. There are mud sparrows which are protected. Since they didn't ask
me, I didn't intervene.
Weather:
Denver very hazy, also a white cloud at the horizon between north and east
with a gray band exactly in between it horizontally, which we hadn't seen
before, and we realized there appeared to be smoke coming from the area of
the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR, so it looked likely a controlled burn. At
12:00 noon MDT the smoke increased tremendously with the smoke rising and
sweeping North, and very curiously a white cumulus cloud on top of it,
probably because of humidity from burning of the grasses being released
rising until it reached the dew point when it formed a cumulus cloud,
termed pyrocumulus. By 10:00 a.m. MDT they were already small puffy clouds
to the South moving to the SE, typically capping thermals, with moderate
cumulus beginning to form in the West by 10:30 a.m. The 'seeing' was hazy
to the South and we had difficulty keeping hawks in view in our binoculars.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant hawk was an RT at 10:17 a.m. at level 4 height of
flight.
GE 2 adult migrants at 12:44 p.m. and 1:15 p.m. and unusually late migrant
TV.
Curiously we saw no accipiters.
After 1:00 p.m. there were only 2 migrants counted, and I wondered whether
the hawks were catching thermals instead. We had excellent cloud cover in
all directions especially in the last hour when it started at 55% and ended
at 85%, we scanned low and high in every direction and did not pick up any
other than over Lookout Mountain, though we did see 92 RBGU in many
different groups up to 28 extremely high in the sky, flying SE. So either
the hawks were not flying or more likely they were flying beyond binocular
range, as the height of thermals was almost 7,000 ft above the watch.
This was another day like yesterday where the only migrant hawks found were
over Lookout Mountain, probably as the thermals were not very strong
earlier in the morning, and hawks preferred the ridge lift. The advantage
of having two watchers is that while Liza was looking for hawks all over, I
concentrated mainly on the top of Lookout Mountain scanning with binoculars
more frequently than I normally do when alone, thus finding more hawks then
I did yesterday with similar weather conditions.
Non-raptor Observations:
3 paragliders at noon had no lift and could not even reach the level of the
watch, this being expected with the Soaring Forecast from the NWS expecting
lift at 12 feet/second and thermal height at 9580 feet AGL by 11:45 a.m.
Predictions:
A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a
high near 75, winds from the W>SW>SSW.
The winds aloft are going to be similar, light from the SW>SSW.J
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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