By Tom Rowley

When Ann Hudson stepped outside her Shropshire home on a cold night in February to fetch some coal for the open fire, she never expected to be attacked. But a pheasant swooped down on to the 77-year-old’s head, dug its claws in and clung to her scalp. Eventually, she managed to shake it off and retreated indoors to tell her stunned family.

Since then the pheasant has become a constant presence outside the house she shares in the small village of Wentnor with her husband Ben, 79, and daughter Sally-Ann, 44. The “tyrant” stares at them through the French window and runs alongside their car, headbutting the wheels. When they venture into the garden to tend the flower beds or trim the hedge, it pounces, putting its wings forward, fanning its tail feathers and dropping its head. Three months later, they have even given it a name – Phil.

Pictures in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph of Sally-Ann trying to evade the bird or tackling it with a badminton racquet may have raised a chuckle but she says the stalking can be serious, bringing to mind a Hitchcock classic, The Birds.

“Sometimes he is fine and just pecks around, but other times he can be quite aggressive,” says Ms Hudson, a medical secretary. “It just depends how he is feeling. This morning my dad was up a ladder and the pheasant was pecking around his ankles.

“But we are wise to him now. If we see him approaching and it looks like he is going to attack, we put a stick out to defend ourselves. We never hit him but we have to put something down to stop us being pecked.”