Scaffolders under siege from dive-bombing seagulls gave their attackers the bird – by drafting in a hawk to scare them off.
A huge flock of adult gulls, which have wingspans of up to 40 inches, swooped on scaffolders working more than 80ft up at Greenock’s Municipal Buildings yesterday.
The men – all employees of a firm called Falcon Scaffolding – had to shield themselves from the aerial onslaught before calling in specialist help.
A Harris Hawk called Clyde and his handler then raced to the rescue from their base in Livingston, West Lothian.
Shaken scaffolder Kenny Crighton told the Tele: “It was a pretty crazy situation – the gulls were actually dive-bombing us and whacking us with their feet and squawking like mad.
“It was like something out of the Hitchcock movie The Birds.
“It was relentless and pretty scary too, because we were more than 80 feet up.
“They were all full-size adult seagulls as well, so it’s not as if we were being attacked by anything small.
“We all wear harnesses, which is just as well because the gulls were trying to knock us off balance.
“But we were removing steel beams so it was very obviously a dangerous situation.
“Through the council we managed to enlist the services of a hawk and things calmed down quite quickly after that.
“Apparently it’s the gulls’ nesting season right now and because they have chicks they’re trying to protect they are ultra-aggressive to anyone who comes near.”
Clyde the hawk’s handler, Steven Loran, who works for Wishaw-based Hawkman Services, said it was all in a day’s work for him and his trusty bird of prey.
But he admitted he was taken aback with the sight they were confronted with when he first arrived on the scene.
Steven said: “They were swarming round in a circle like vultures. The seagulls were just going daft.
“But the hawk has certainly done his job in dispersing them. The gulls just don’t like the fact there is a bird of prey around.”
Steven told how he can let Clyde fly around for a while, but he kept him on his glove for this job.
The giant flock almost immediately split up with individual birds landing on nearby rooftops and keeping their distance with Clyde standing guard over the scene.
Steven said: “We’re constantly working on these kind of jobs all the time because seagulls are such a problem at places such as retail parks and bus depots.
“We can be hawking for up to 12 hours a day at this time of the year.
“The gulls most certainly can cause injury to the people they attack and it becomes a real health and safety issue.
“And during the nesting season they become very aggressive towards people.”
An Inverclyde Council spokesman said: “Attacks by gulls were threatening the safety of contractors working at height on the façade of the Municipal Buildings.
“Steps were therefore taken to move nests from the working area in accordance with RSPB guidelines.”