Always been a casual birder tbh,I wouldn’t go out my way to witness the arrival of some pale looking finch,blow in from its African trip,but sweet Jesus I’d make an exception for the more exotic examples like Hoopees.
I tend to get the best random paybacks when fishing off coast,last year I had a flock of Sanderling’s in my peripheral sight,doing their amazing aerobatic,sea-skimming routine and I became aware that one of them parted from the flock and bizarrely… Stopped midflight 
,except it didn’t… It was interdicted by a roaming Peregrine Falcon that plucked the thing about 2 foot from the water,a seriously,calculated,hazardous manoeuvre by the falcon which probably wouldn’t have gone well if it dunked in the mane. 
.When out seeking these avian spectacles,disappointments usually the order of the day I find. 