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Headline: Photographer Captures Sparrowhawk Drowning a Jackdaw

Caption: Amateur photographer Mervyn Campbell captured these stunning - and brutal - images of a sparrowhawk drowning an unfortunate jackdaw. He noticed the eye-catching scene while driving near Ballymena in Northern Ireland on Sunday (10 march). Mervyn explains: "Last Sunday I was driving along one of the small country roads, not far from my home at Ballymena, Co Antrim, when I saw a female Sparrowhawk mantling prey at the roadside. Having stopped the car to take a few photographs, I was really surprised to see the prey was a rather large Jackdaw. What was even more surprising was that the Sparrowhawk was using the deep puddle at the road edge to drown the Jackdaw. I have heard rumours of Sparrowhawks doing this before, but never actually ever saw any evidence of it before. I wanted to get evidence of this behaviour, without actually interfering with nature. After taking a few photographs I left the Sparrowhawk to finish what it started, the Jackdaw was beaten and it was a matter of time until it was all over."

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