Lucky duckling survives 30ft fall

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A unhatched duckling which looked set to become a seagull's supper has had a lucky escape after falling 30ft (9.1m) from the bird's beak in Devon.

The baby Indian runner duck - nicknamed Houdini - later hatched from the egg which was damaged in the fall at the Rare Breeds Farm in Totnes.

The centre's Barrie Tolley said it was "a miracle" he survived after the gull picked the egg up and tried to fly off.

Mr Tolley put the cracked egg in an incubator and it hatched the next day.

'Lucky little thing'

Mr Tolley said the egg was covered in cracks after falling into one of the fields.

He said: "Seeing the egg fall from the seagull was terrible, but Houdini is clearly a lucky little thing.

"We've had problems with seagulls recently, they come in and swoop down on eggs and fly away.

"I saw this one take the duck egg and ran after it but I was too late.

"It was covered in cracks so I thought it might not make it at all. Still, I wanted to give it a chance so I put it in the incubator."

Totnes Rare Breeds Farm houses over 250 unusual species of pigs, sheep, goats, owls, horses, chickens and ducks.