Man left bloodied after seagull attack near home

A man was left bloodied after being attacked by a seagull as he walked out of his partner's home.

Phil Marshall said moments after he left the address in Earl Street, Hastings, on Wednesday, the bird swooped down from the roof and scratched him on the head.

The 67-year-old said the bird had "come at me a few times" in the past week but that he had been able to scare it away every other time.

A retired Home Office dog handler, Mr Marshall said: "I can handle 45kg of German Shepherd but obviously not seagulls."

Mr Marshall was left with a bloodied face after the dive-bomb attack

"I will be a bit more wary of them from now on. I have lived in Hastings all my life and I know they can be very protective of their chicks."

Mr Marshall said the seagull has nested with its chicks on the roof of the building for several years, but this was the first year it had tried to attack him.

The bird had reportedly attempted to swoop on him several times in the past week, but this was the first time it had been successful.

Mr Marshall hypothesised that the bird may have been attacking him due to the colour of his t-shirt, as every time he had been attacked he had been wearing pink.

He added that, in the future, he would try to wear a baseball cap to protect himself from more attacks.

RSPB advises: 'Use an umbrella'

According to the RSPB: "Where gulls are nesting on rooftops, we understand this can cause incidents of dive-bombing when they are protecting their nest sites and chicks."

It advised people experiencing dive-bombing to use an umbrella when entering or leaving a property "to deter the parents from getting too close".

The RSPB also advised against people feeding gulls, saying: "Given their competitive nature, they will fight each other to get to the food first, often resulting in them snatching the food item from the hand."

All species of gull are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985.

This makes it illegal to intentionally or, in Scotland and Northern Ireland, recklessly injure or kill any gull or damage or destroy an active nest or its contents.