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A man has been blinded in one eye after a seabird pecked his eyeball out of its socket while he walked along a beach with his girlfriend.

Michael Buckland’s face became drenched in blood after his right eyeball was pierced at least three times by the gannet’s razor-sharp six-inch beak.

His left eyelid was sliced in two and his right eye dangled from his face following the violent attack.

Surgeons threaded 11 stitches across Mr Buckland’s right eyeball, and he has been permanently scarred across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

Describing the pain of having his eye pecked out, the 38-year-old, of Heath, Cardiff, said: “It feels like somebody’s sticking a pin through the back of your eye and trying to prise it out.”

The gruesome incident happened on a Gower beach on Sunday, June 19.

Mr Buckland had been walking along the beach with his girlfriend, 48-year-old Alison Stanley, when they came across the bird.

The gannet seemed unable to walk or fly, so Mr Buckland scooped it under his arm to take it to higher ground, away from the incoming tide.

The pair walked further along the beach with the bird in tow before seeing a family of four in the distance out walking with their dog.

But, upon seeing the gannet, the small, black terrier-like dog dashed over and tried to attack it. As Mr Buckland looked down at the terrified gannet, it began to lash out at him by pecking his face.

Mr Buckland staggered across the sand and tripped beside a rock pool.

“I put my right hand to my face and I felt there was a big hole where my eye was meant to be. My eye was hanging out and I had to put it back in on the beach. I didn’t feel it was there, until I felt it at the side,” he said.

“The bird was pecking my nose. I had a flap of skin on the top of my nose and a big gash across the top of my nose. My eyelid was ripped off on my left eye. But if I didn’t blink in time, I would have lost that eye as well.”

The couple were forced to walk back along the beach for 45 minutes before reaching help at a caravan site, where Miss Stanley owns a caravan.

The family of four and their dog had disappeared from view in the commotion.

Mr Buckland was taken to Singleton Hospital in Swansea, where he had emergency surgery in an attempt to save his eye.

A specialist eye surgeon was contacted to carry out the operation, threading 11 stitches across Mr Buckland’s eyeball.

The movement of his eye was saved, but medical staff were unable to save his sight.

He said: “All I can see through my bad eye now is a bright light – I can see bright colours and bright lights, but that’s it.

“If I go outside now, it feels like a needle is going through it.”

Mr Buckland, a welder who lives with his girlfriend, who is 60% deaf, has also been told he will never be able to work in the profession again.

His optic nerve was undamaged, and so he will also undergo an operation in seven months, with a very slim chance of restoring vision in his right eye.

Following the ordeal, the couple returned to the same beach to find the bird had since died and its body was lying in the sand.

A spokesman from the RSPB said: “This is an extremely rare, one-off event.

“If it is absolutely necessary to handle a wild animal, you should do so with extreme caution.

“We would recommend that if you see an injured animal, you report it to the RSPCA.”