Birdwatchers flocked to see a rare swallow in Scotland - only to see it attacked and eaten by a sparrowhawk.

The red-rumped swallow, normally resident to the Mediterranean, excited twitchers when it was spotted at Lunan Bay, near Montrose.

Word that it had arrived on the East Coast of Scotland spread quickly, and a large crowd gathered to watch it flying over the beach.

The swallow's fatal mistake was to take a rest high on the roof of a nearby farm building, reports The Times.

The twitchers watched in disbelief as the sparrowhawk appeared, swooped on the swallow, crushed it with its powerful talons and flew off.

Mike Sawyer, of the Dundee branch of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "We were horrified.

"We had just phoned local birdwatchers to tell them of this rare occurrence. Then we had to ring them back and tell them it had been eaten."

The RSPB says the red-rumped swallow is a rare visitor to the UK but occasionally turns up during the migrating season, probably having lost its way.

from Ananova

Just like in the book!

Mother duck makes annual traffic-stopping trip
Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:35 PM ET

DUBLIN (Reuters) - A mother duck brought traffic in central Dublin to a standstill for an annual event Friday as she marched her seven ducklings to a pond for their first swim.

The duck, encouraged by delighted passersby, was relocating her young from their birthplace in the grounds of Trinity College to St.Stephen's Green, the city's historic public park, around half a mile away.

"She's been doing it for about the last six or seven years now — laying her eggs at the college and then taking the babies to the green," Trinity groundsman David Hackett told Reuters.

"Usually she's good and picks an evening when it's quiet to waddle them up the street but sometimes she doesn't and in the past we've had to have the police help us out with the traffic."

This time two members of Trinity's zoology department escorted the new family safely along several busy streets.

Link to original article including a photo of the proud mama.

WooooHoooo! Pileated Woodpecker flew right past me, landed on a tree about 30-40 feet away and started hitching its way up the trunk. I got one of the best looks at one I've ever had. It then proceeded to scootch rapidly to the top of the tree it was on, hammer off a good sized chunk of bark, and chow down on some (presumably) tasty bugs. I followed it around the woods behind the nearby Elementary school for about 5 minutes before it decided to go someplace else and zoomed off.

I also heard dueling Wood Thrushes, though I never saw them. (ee-oh-lay!)

I had a birdie land on my back fence! Well, Turkey Vultures are birdies too!

Sorry, but camera phone's the best I had available. I should be getting my camera back from sunnydale47 now that she found hers (can I say it?) on Wednesday. Too bad the pretty (?) birdie won't wait that long.

Update: The TV's back! And he/she brought a couple of American Crows along with him/her. I guess I'd better see if something/someone died back there.

Mmmmm, meat!

Check out Berlepsch's Six-wired Bird of Paradise, a bird first described in the 1890's but basically "lost" since then.

I'm pretty sure I saw one of these the other day, though. It was hanging out with an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Too bad I didn't have a camera. Ah, well! Guess you'll have to take my word for it!

UPDATE: They talked about the expedition that found the bird on NPR's Day to Day. Better picture of the bird, plus others — including one of a long-beaked echidna! A bit of audio of the SWBP, too, once they put it online later today.