'Experts say the birds are merely defending their nests but victim Colin said they go too far. He said the last straw came when he needed two stitches in a cut to the back of his head after he was targeted while loading roof timber onto a pulley.

"I felt like I'd been shot in the skull and when I when I touched my hair it was streaming with blood. I looked around and I was surrounded in a cloud of feathers - that was it, something had to be done."

Colin said he could just about afford to fork out the minimum wage for a personal bodyguard.'