Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (16 Aug 2026) 8 Raptors
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Aug 16, 2026, 10:14:56 PM (2 days ago) Aug 16
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Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
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. See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk
Visitors:
Unloading my scope from my car, a bicyclist stopped and asked what I was doing with my equipment. We had a long chat. He did not know hawks migrate, and I explained why. He wanted to know what hawks we could see and I told him we have 14 species possible here. I explained the nationwide network of active hawk watches and that we report to HMA. He wanted to know if he could access the data so I told him to look up hawkcount.org. At the watch around 9 hikers were curious as to what we were looking at. One couple asked numerous questions once they found out what we were looking for.
Weather:
Another slightly smoky day today with Denver wreathed in smoke, improving as the morning went on, cool, good cloud cover. There was a 3 degree thick well-defined smoke layer over Denver. By the second full hour dark clouds started moving in from the West. There were lightning strikes 7 miles away but to our according to my app but when it started raining lightly we gave up the watch.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an SS at 10:45 a.m. DST going east of Lookout Mountain and below the level of our watch. Non-migraine Raptors: GE adult 1, CH 1, RT 17, TV 12, AK 1. I had Zak Hepler, a raptor enthusiast, come to the watch to help me. I initially met him at Ted Floyd's post-Thanksgiving Day bird trip, and he had to come for our DFO winter raptor ID trip the next week, after which I had given participants a list of useful books as well as for those interested in hawk watching. He told me he had "all the hawk books." So I suggested he read Paul Kerlinger's Flight Strategies of Migrating Hawks. He has a good eye for IDing distant raptors, and has the making of a good hawk watcher.
Non-raptor Observations:
WTSW 15, VGSW 2, NOFLI 1, SPTO 1, BTHU 1, CORA 4, MODO 1, BCCH 1. Monarch butterfly 1. Being a weekend there were about 12 paragliders, with seven taking off one after the other. The ones at 10:00 a.m. DST did not have much lift and could not even reach our level but by 10:45 a.m. they had good lift.
Predictions:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light and variable wind becoming east 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aian...@earthlink.net)
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
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Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
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. See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk
| Daily Raptor Counts: Aug 16, 2026 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 3 | 24 | 24 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Kestrel | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipitrine | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 8 | 40 | 40 |
| Observation start time: | 09:15:00 |
| Observation end time: | 12:45:00 |
| Total observation time: | 3.5 hours |
| Official Counter | Ajit Antony |
| Observers: | Zak Hepler |
Visitors:
Unloading my scope from my car, a bicyclist stopped and asked what I was doing with my equipment. We had a long chat. He did not know hawks migrate, and I explained why. He wanted to know what hawks we could see and I told him we have 14 species possible here. I explained the nationwide network of active hawk watches and that we report to HMA. He wanted to know if he could access the data so I told him to look up hawkcount.org. At the watch around 9 hikers were curious as to what we were looking at. One couple asked numerous questions once they found out what we were looking for.
Weather:
Another slightly smoky day today with Denver wreathed in smoke, improving as the morning went on, cool, good cloud cover. There was a 3 degree thick well-defined smoke layer over Denver. By the second full hour dark clouds started moving in from the West. There were lightning strikes 7 miles away but to our according to my app but when it started raining lightly we gave up the watch.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an SS at 10:45 a.m. DST going east of Lookout Mountain and below the level of our watch. Non-migraine Raptors: GE adult 1, CH 1, RT 17, TV 12, AK 1. I had Zak Hepler, a raptor enthusiast, come to the watch to help me. I initially met him at Ted Floyd's post-Thanksgiving Day bird trip, and he had to come for our DFO winter raptor ID trip the next week, after which I had given participants a list of useful books as well as for those interested in hawk watching. He told me he had "all the hawk books." So I suggested he read Paul Kerlinger's Flight Strategies of Migrating Hawks. He has a good eye for IDing distant raptors, and has the making of a good hawk watcher.
Non-raptor Observations:
WTSW 15, VGSW 2, NOFLI 1, SPTO 1, BTHU 1, CORA 4, MODO 1, BCCH 1. Monarch butterfly 1. Being a weekend there were about 12 paragliders, with seven taking off one after the other. The ones at 10:00 a.m. DST did not have much lift and could not even reach our level but by 10:45 a.m. they had good lift.
Predictions:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light and variable wind becoming east 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aian...@earthlink.net)
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
This is an automated email report from hawkcount.org.
If you do not wish to receive these reports, please send email to unsub...@hawkcount.org to unsubscribe.
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