Rare European bird sighting has twitchers on Scots isle all of a flutter

A RARE exotic beauty has stolen the spotlight from the isle of Mull's celebrated sea eagles.

Twitchers were yesterday swooping on Loch Frisa, home to Mull's public sea eagle hide, with their sights firmly set on another species.

A lone European roller, instantly recognisable by its brilliant blue feathers, was seen near the hide, in Glen Aros, on Thursday.

The roller, a rare sight in Britain, should be in north Africa or Spain at this time of year.

But after a surprise sighting by holidaymaker John Banner at 5:30am, wildlife tour operator Pam Brown, of Discover Mull, managed to track it down again a few hours later.

Mrs Brown said: "A couple of friends went with me to look for it, we knew where the man had parked his car when he saw it, so we knew where to start looking. We searched for about one and a half hours before we found it but it was a brilliant sight, when it flies it's just all blue."

The bird was in the distance, on private farmland, but Mrs Brown said: "I managed to get a photograph of it by putting the camera at the end of my telescope."

To find a European roller on Mull is "mega rare" according to Dave Sexton, RSPB officer for the island, who believes the bird may have been blown in by the recent storms, or simply flew off its migration course.

Mr Sexton said: "This is only the third recorded sighting of a roller for Mull. One was in 1888, but it was shot by Maclaine of Lochbuie."