>From Greg Hanisek et al. 10/22 New Haven, Lighthouse Point hawk watch: Despite a small distraction nearby (had to take a 20-minute break to see a COMMON GROUND-DOVE in East Haven!!), we had a huge finch flight 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on a slow day for hawks (78 total diurnal raptors). House and Purple Finch calls were in the air throughout those 2.5 hours. Working hard against blue skies I came up with the following conservative totals (they won't sound conservative, but they are): House Finch - c. 1,400; Purple Finch, c. 500. We also had about 30 Pine Siskins. Am Goldfinch numbers remain minimal (c 50). We also had c 1,000 Am. Robins and c 2,500 Red-winged Blackbirds. A lot people are surprised to learn that House Finches are migratory, and I'd don't think much is known about their migrations. They certainly are short-distant migrants. Large flights like this are nothing new at Lighthouse. Prior to the widespread eye disease that drastically reduced the Northeast population in recent years, we used to get occasional 1,000+ bird days at the Point. The largest count I have in my notes was 2,200 and (as is often the case when you have notes to refer to) today fits into a pattern of peak occurrence. The 2,200-House Finch day was on 23 Oct 1995. The heavy migration this year seems to indicate some measure of recovery from the disease-induced low numbers.