Last day of Arles holiday so decided on a brief walk down past the van Gogh bridge on the canal to leave time for packing, present buying, etc.
At the Marais de Vigueirat a few days earlier, they had told me that the chances of seeing a roller were relatively slim compared to bee eater. On the day of course I saw neither so I was more than somewhat surprised to see a distinctly blue and brown bird flying on the far side of the canal just south of the Pont van Gogh. Only settling briefly, it quickly took evasive action but had to fly in front of long stretch of waterside trees, so that I got a good look at it and could clearly identified that it was in fact a roller.
A bridge further down the canal and another one appeared in similar fashion - quite clear views of the reddish-brown body and the pale and navy blue wing pattern. On my way back I saw another near where I saw the first, although it could of course have been that there were only two actual birds (or even feasibly one) providing the three sightings.
It just went to show how even a casual, short walk with no greater intention than checking to see if any anglers were about, can have very unexpected consequences.
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