Date: 11/6/26 8:14 pm From: <reports...> Subject: [cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (06 Nov 2026) 21 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: Nov 06, 2026
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Observation start time: 09:45:00
Observation end time: 15:15:00
Total observation time: 4.5 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers:
Visitors:
Many hikers asked questions.
A 6 year old boy hiking with his mother plaintively said to her I can't see
the M, referring to the big M on the side of the NE face of Mount Zion to
denote the School of Mines. I told him where it was, not visible from where
we were, and told his mother that they could use the trail to hike there
which they did, and enjoyed it. She thanked me for telling her about the
trail.
Sandhill Crane - 100 in 2 groups of 65 and 35, I was able to show the
larger group to 4 hikers, one of whom asked - Is that what you are looking
for? I explained what I was actually doing. Isn't this late for cranes? Do
you know about the Merlin app? Yes, I have it. I opened it and showed them
the bar graph for SACR showing it could be seen in Golden up to the second
week in December.
A woman asked whether I was bird watching. I explained. She wanted to know
if I had seen any Bald Eagle which she had seen at the Rocky Mountain
Arsenal NWR. I explained that they are fish eaters and would be seen closer
to reservoirs, while GE are found around mountains. Just then I found a GE
over Lookout Mountain 0.3 miles away which I showed her and she could see.
She wanted to know how to make out a falcon from a hawk, and I told her
about the free Raptor ID app from Hawk Watch International, and since she
lived at the base of Green Mountain, I suggested she could go to the
Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch in spring and perhaps see some fairly close.
A couples told me they were at Red Rocks and they had a bird they could see
and heard calling but they didn't know what it was and had a video of it
which they played. It was a CORA from its croak. They hadn't heard of the
Merlin app, and I demonstrated how it could identify the CORA using the
sound from their video. They were certainly impressed and said they would
get Merlin, Uncharted with me for about 15 minutes.
Some asked about the hawk watch and I explainedre: HMA, around 76 Hawk
watches active this fall mainly in the US, some in Canada, Mexico, Central
and South America; how researchers can use the data.
Four hikers with a tiny baby wanted to know pointing to my scope whether it
was a camera or a binocular. Neither, I said, and focused it on DIA and let
them look through it, as well as finding a TOSO perched on top of a nearby
tree, and letting them know about the Maryland app as well
A paraglider at 12:30 p.m. struggled to get any lift whatsoever, consistent
with the Soaring Forecast as well as the absence of hawks using thermals so
they had to go low through the gap between Green Mountain and Lookout
Mountain or use ridge lift on the Eastern end of Lookout Mountain.
Weather:
Denver was only slightly hazy. Completely overcast sky with cirrus clouds
after a weak cold front went through yesterday. The combination of NNW
winds aloft and ESE winds at the watch, together with poor thermal
formation were perfect conditions for a good late migration. The Soaring
Forecast of the NWS had a Poor Thermal Soaring Index, lift at only 1.8
ft/sec, thermals 3176 feet AGL which would make it only 1376 ft above the
watch, but no trigger temperature time given indicating thermals would
remain low all day.
In the 11:00 hour there were very few hawks, so I scanned with binoculars
higher against the clouds without any luck.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an RT at 10:04 a.m. over Green Mountain. In the 10:00
are I had 10 migrants, and very few each hour thereafter. It would appear
that with the poor migration conditions hawks would wait it out until
conditions improved.
Golden Eagles: 1. Two adult GE at 11:00 a.m. far to the NNW I observed for
7 minutes while they flew around eventually going WSW, non-migrant.
2. An adult GE over Lookout Mountain went NE, I was able to show it to 2
hikers.
3. 11:35 a.m., 2 migrant GE adults about 10� AGL (the height of a fist at
arm's length) over the Table Mountains, soaring through the gap between
Green Mountain and Lookout Mountain. Both were molting 6th primaries with
one missing a single middle secondary and the other molting an inner
primary.
4. At 12:35 p.m. I was watching a migrant RT left of the easternmost
antenna on Lookout Mountain with my scope to age it when it was suddenly
chased by an adult GE which dove on it repeatedly, both of them dropping
into the Gap, going south,
5. Around 2:05 p.m. 2 adult GE soared to the West going SW and in following
one I lost the other, the one going below the Western end of Lookout
Mountain, then rose above the ridge not seeming to migrate. I wondered
whether to count the first one, but was reluctant to because I hadn't
really seen it going through. A few minutes later both of them came back
North over Lookout Mountain and I was able to show them when they were
quite close to 2 hikers, that they didn't need to flap at all, and they
were thrilled seeing them, particularly when I told them the wingspan was 7
ft. One of them pointed out another eagle coming from the south, easily
naked eye, and I pointed out the white head and tail, and they were able to
see the adult BE easily. The 2 GE eventually soared to the South! One was
molting an 6th primary bilaterally and a central tail feather.
An adult RT at 1:36 p.m. found over South Table Mountain actively flapped,
because of the poor lift, all the way to the SE.
Predictions:
Tomorrow being the second day after a cold front went through the area
could be another good day like today for migration. Sunny, with a high near
62. West wind 5 to 9 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon.
The light winds aloft are predicted from the WNW>NNW>N>NE.
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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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