Meanwhile the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is backing a couple who have been ordered by officials at Berwick on Tweed council to stop feeding birds from a bird table in their own back garden.

The council acted after a neighbour of the couple, from Belford, Northumberland complained that the birds brought mess, dirt and unwelcome noise to the village. The council agreed, adding that the food left out could attract rats and other vermin and that nesting birds can block chimneys and gutters.