Date: 10/24/26 4:05 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (24 Oct 2026) 7 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 24, 2026
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 11:00:00
Total observation time: 3 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
Two young men came up to the top and one of them took out a spotting scope
on a tripod while the other had binoculars, both looking toward the west. I
asked them what wildlife they were looking for, and they said Birds. What
birds? Red Crossbill. Why that species? Because we've never seen one. They
probably had seen our eBird reports showing that species commonly here. Do
you know the call? Yes. If flock of 6 came by calling and I pointed them
out. I showed them a TOSO and an RTHA through my scope. They were Aaron
Farrar and Mason Richards students at the School of Mines, from Michigan
and Texas respectively. We discussed local birds and species they hadn't
seen. One of them was a member of DFO, I strongly recommend that both of
them join and go on DFO trips.
Weather:
The temperature dropped markedly overnight. Overcast with stratrocumulus
undulatus which had some thin areas where some filtered sunlight could come
through, but by the last hour very low dark gray clouds, altotratus, moved
in from the north. Denver was clear. The winds aloft after the cold front
went through was from the NNE changing to NE. The Soaring Forecast of the
NWS predicted zero lift and only 797 ft AGL for height of thermals but
there was no trigger temperature time mentioned indicating it would not be
reached. This to me would indicated that raptors which used thermals would
not fly today. By 10:30 a.m. there was virga to the north, and by 10:30
a.m. there was virga to the SW, with low clouds covering the ridges to the
north as well as for the 14ers to the West. In the last hour haziness
developed over Denver caused by a controlled burn at the Rocky Mountain
Arsenal NWR.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an AK only by 10:23 a.m. MDT. An SS dove on an RT
twice, both on migration.
Only 1 migrant RT flew to the east of the watch, the other migrants were
all found over Lookout Mountain to the South as is fairly common in
October.
Non-migrant raptors: I heard an odd call which was presumably from a CORA
being chased down into Clear Creek Canyon by an adult GE missing a left 8th
primary feather. RT 2.
Non-raptor Observations:
4 hang gliders took off at 10:15 a.m. and based on the soaring forecast I
expected they would not have much lift, and they did not, struggling to get
up to the level of the watch which is at 1771 ft AGL, but by 10:40 a.m.
when 5 paragliders had taken off as well, they had moderate lift reaching I
estimate 300 ft above the watch, none going really high.
RECR 6, STJA 1, CAGO 5, HAWO 1, AMCR 4, CORA 2, BBMA 1, TOSO 1.
Predictions:
It could be a good day for my rent since the front went through today with
NE winds tomorrow. A 20 percent chance of showers after 3pm. Partly sunny,
with a high near 56. Calm wind becoming east northeast around 6 mph in the
afternoon.
Winds aloft expected to be light from the NE.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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