CAMPBELTOWN is enjoying an early tourist boom as twitchers flock there from all over Britain in search of a rare visitor.

Repeated sightings of an American Herring Gull, a species that originates from Southern Alaska and the Great Lakes, are boosting accommodation bookings in the Kintyre town.

A tweet on the Rare Bird Network reported that the gull was still in residence yesterday morning, when it was spotted in a field near Drumlemble Primary School.

The white and grey gull, with its black wing-tips with white spots and trademark pink legs, has also been seen at Campbeltown harbour, and near the local airport, in the past few days.

Believed to have been blown across the Atlantic in bad weather, the gull is thousands of miles off course from its usual winter haunts of Mexico, Hawaii and the West Indies.

Argyll bird recorder Jim Dickson verified the first sighting by Dan Brown, of Inveraray, who travelled to Campbeltown last month.