A homeowner says he is ”under siege” from an angry pheasant which attacks him outside and even INSIDE his home.
Retired ornithologist John Tucker, 72, is forced to wear gloves and carry a walking stick to protect himself from the unruly bird – which he has dubbed ‘Yobbo’.
Every time he leaves his house the pheasant waddles into his garden from a nearby field and pecks him with his beak.
The bird flaps his wings and attacks John’s legs, arms and head – often chasing him round the garden as he tries to escape.
But the angry animal has even learned to spot when the front door is open – and runs INTO the house to attack John and his wife.
John says the wild animal sits and stares at the front door of his country home waiting for him to emerge.
He is now forced to leave his house by climbing out of a back window so he can avoid a daily pecking from his feathered foe.
John, of Branscombe, Devon, said: ”Every time I get in my car he comes after me down the road and I have to accelerate to get away.
”When I get out of the car he pursues me into the house and even comes inside and trails me around the house. I can’t cut the grass without him following me around.
”If I want to spend time in the garden I’ve learned to let him chase me into the shed. I turn round quickly and shut him in for a while. Otherwise he comes at me non stop.
”I was a professional ornithologist all my career so I know a a thing or two about birds. But I’ve never been stalked by one before.”
The bird has been in the area a while but John says he turned aggressive around two weeks ago and started to chase him and wife Carol, 64.
He said: ”It’s got to the point where I have to climb out of the back window as he’s waiting at the front door.
”My wife can’t sit in the garden without him pestering her. It was quite funny to start with, but now its extremely irritating.
”People have asked me why I don’t just make him into a pie, but I could never do that. I nearly lost my cool with him the other day as he was being particularly aggressive.
”I picked him up and thought ‘I could just ring your neck’. But as he looked at me with his brown eyes I knew I couldn’t ever do it.”
John says the bird only goes for him and his wife and is wary of other people, including Carol’s two grown up sons.
A spokesman for the National Gamekeepers Organisation said the animal is probably defending its territory in a nearby field.
He said: ”You get a similar thing in a variety of other birds as spring approaches and the breeding season begins.
”All the bird is doing is protecting what it considers to be its territory.”
