Wimbledon is Brigstock hawk’s pigeon-scaring playground

The unusual job came about after Davis spotted pigeons interrupting play during the 1999 Wimbledon final between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

She contacted Wimbledon, in south-west London, and was invited to bring her previous hawk Hamish to the courts to show his skills.

Rufus has long-since taken over the pigeon-scaring duties and a typical day at the tournament for him starts at about 04:00 BST.

“Generally, we start off in court number one to make sure that any pigeons that may have gone under the roof and in any little nooks and crannies, he goes and flies up there to make sure nothing’s about,” she said.

“Occasionally there is one, and there’ll be a little chase and the pigeon’s out.”