A BREAKDOWN team provided a cracking service when driver David Waters needed help while transporting a dozen bustard eggs as part of a conservation project.

Mr Waters, who is director of Wiltshire charity the Great Bustard Group, was returning from Spain with the eggs when his 4x4 broke down outside the channel tunnel terminal in Folkstone, Kent.

The breakdown, which was caused by an alternator fault, happened at around 7pm leaving Mr. Waters unable to run the incubator but an AA patrol came to the rescue.

He said: “I had driven up through the middle of Spain with the eggs and my three working dogs and the breakdown occurred as I was coming off the tunnel.

“The eggs were wrapped up with coats and jackets as, of course, I couldn’t have the engine running during the crossing. They are okay for a little while but needed incubation once we reached the other side.”

The eggs had been collected from Castilla y León in North-western Spain, as the Spanish birds are closest to the original UK population which was wiped out in the 1840s.

Mr. Waters said: “The AA patrols were all very helpful, plugging the incubator in to their 12-volt chargers to keep the eggs warm and making sure it was all working.

"Ten of the eggs went on to hatch a few days later, which is a very good hatch rate. The other two eggs may still hatch, so we’re waiting a bit longer.

“Great Bustard Group is working hard to buy another second hand vehicle, as the 4x4 is 18 years old and getting towards the end of its working life.”

AA President Edmund King said: “We’re delighted that we could help these rare chicks get off to a flying start in life as part of their reintroduction to the British countryside. I think it’s fair to say our patrols did a cracking job."

The Great Bustard Group’s conservation project is due to feature on BBC Two’s Springwatch programme tonight.

The project to reintroduce the great bustard, a bird which became extinct in the UK in the 19th century, took its first major step forward with the first successful hatching of wild chicks in 2009.

The new arrivals marked the first successful breeding attempts for the bird in this country since 1832.

At the time Mr Waters, the man behind the reintroduction of great bustards to Salisbury Plain, described the appearance of the chicks as "absolutely brilliant".

Mr Waters, a former policeman who founded the Great Bustard Group in 1998, has since dedicated his time to bringing back the spectacular bird to one of its former strongholds.