Date: 10/22/26 6:07 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (22 Oct 2026) 4 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 22, 2026
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Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 4 hours
Official Counter: Liza Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
A couple from California were interested to know I was counting migration
raptors. I explained where we send the data to and that there were ~78 hawk
watches reporting data to hawkcount.org
A group of 4 high school kids enjoyed looking at downtown Denver through my
spotting scope and were thrilled to see a distant car through the spotting
scope.
Weather:
100% cloud cover at the start of the watch with light haze noted over
Denver. A gray brown band was noted extending from downtown Denver to the
north east. Haze was noted south of downtown and east of Green mtn. Virga
was noted to the west and north east of the watch and continued in various
locations for the entire watch period.
Soaring forecast predicted a poor flight of raptors with the maximum height
of thermals to be 4779 ft AGL with a trigger temperature of 23.2 C which
was never reached!
Raptor Observations:
The first raptor was a migrant RT seen at 11:33 AM MDT.
A total of 4 migrant raptors seen during the 4 hours of the watch. It was
gratifying that this brought the number of migrant raptors seen to 1801 for
the season.
One non migrant distant raptor which most likely was a large falcon flew
north towards NREL windmills.
Predictions:
Cloudy through mid morning then gradually clearing , with a high near 75
F.
S to SW winds 5 to 13 mph with gusts as high as 21 mph
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Report submitted by Liza Antony (<liza.antony15...>)
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