World

Duck Houdini's lucky escape

by LotusFlower | September 25, 2008 at 03:10 pm | 90 views | 2 comments | 10 recommendations

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Let us hope that the world's financial system can survive the fall and cracks in its infrastructure just like Houdini the duckling who was picked up as an egg by a seagull to rise to great heights only to be dropped and cracked. All that saw the rise and fall of the egg worried for its survival but now it's back in the care of its mother and thriving again.

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A DUCKLING has been dubbed Houdini after surviving when its egg was snatched and dropped 30ft by a hungry seagull.
Farmer Barrie Tolley watched as the bird swooped and grabbed the large white egg from its nest.

But as it flew away it fell from its beak and landed in a field where Barrie found it badly cracked but still intact.

He put the damaged egg in an incubator thinking there was little chance of survival for the Indian Runner duckling inside.

But to his amazement the following day the egg began to hatch and after a five-hour fight Houdini emerged.

Incredible
His birth was even more unusual because he came through the side of the egg rather than the top as normal.

He is now ten days old and has rejoined his mother and four siblings at the Rare Breeds Farm Barrie runs in Totnes, Devon.

Barrie, 57, said: ”It was a really incredible sight and we were all transfixed for hours watching.

“We thought he was very unlikely to have survived such a long fall, as ducklings are delicate at that stage.

“Seeing the egg fall from the seagull was terrible, but Houdini is clearly a lucky little thing.”