LA_MERC_Dirge
March 9th, 2004, 11:01 AM
LMAO
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3545679.stm
Twitchers watch robin served rare
Sparrow hawks hunt insects, mammals, birds and reptiles
Birdwatchers from all over Britain who gathered in Grimsby to catch sight of a rare American robin were horrified to see her eaten by a passing sparrowhawk.
They were still setting up their cameras when the predator swooped down from a row of drab factories and warehouses on an industrial estate.
The young bird, from the southern US, "didn't really live to enjoy her moment of fame," a twitcher told the Guardian.
The robin's vivid red breast made her an obvious candidate for a lunch date.
"It was a terrible moment," Graham Appleton, of the British Trust for Ornithology, which had spread news of the bird's arrival, told the newspaper.
But the trust's migration watch organiser Dawn Balmer was more philosophical. "Most of these rare visitors eventually succumb anyway to cold weather or a lack of food, if not predation," she told the paper.
The robin, whose scientific name Turdus migratorius derives from its long-distance travels within America was probably blown across the Atlantic after being "caught up in a jetstream", Mr Appleton added.
A member of the thrush family, with oily-black wings and tail, American robin are as big as British blackbirds.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3545679.stm
Twitchers watch robin served rare
Sparrow hawks hunt insects, mammals, birds and reptiles
Birdwatchers from all over Britain who gathered in Grimsby to catch sight of a rare American robin were horrified to see her eaten by a passing sparrowhawk.
They were still setting up their cameras when the predator swooped down from a row of drab factories and warehouses on an industrial estate.
The young bird, from the southern US, "didn't really live to enjoy her moment of fame," a twitcher told the Guardian.
The robin's vivid red breast made her an obvious candidate for a lunch date.
"It was a terrible moment," Graham Appleton, of the British Trust for Ornithology, which had spread news of the bird's arrival, told the newspaper.
But the trust's migration watch organiser Dawn Balmer was more philosophical. "Most of these rare visitors eventually succumb anyway to cold weather or a lack of food, if not predation," she told the paper.
The robin, whose scientific name Turdus migratorius derives from its long-distance travels within America was probably blown across the Atlantic after being "caught up in a jetstream", Mr Appleton added.
A member of the thrush family, with oily-black wings and tail, American robin are as big as British blackbirds.