Monday 6 August 2012

Kestrel?

There was a bloke on the radio this morning who was given a prison sentence for looting in last summer's riots. To be fair, he wasn't complaining and took his time in stir on the chin, but I was a bit disturbed when they said that his booty was a four-pack of Kestrel Super lager. Disturbed not by the harshness of the criminal justice system, I should add, but by the lack of aspiration in the choice of tipple shown by the criminal.  Rated only 7/10 on a review website for 'tramp juice' (it's true, google it), 40-something readers may remember rejecting this stuff at teenage house parties on the basis that drinking Toilet Duck would do them less damage.

Common Tern on the islands from the Macdonald Hide

Back in bird-world, meanwhile, the other kind of Kestrels have been causing havoc with Dorset's breeding terns. Not content with attacking the Little Terns on Chesil Beach, they have also been blamed for some of the predation of the tern nests on Brownsea. A bigger culprit this year, however, has apparently been the local Yellow-legged Gulls, but we can't really shoot them on account of them being one of the county's rarest breeding birds. Tough on the terns though, who have faced trampling by deer, bad weather and other predators in recent years. At least the Sandwich Terns sound like they got a few chicks away this year, but the Commons have apparently taken a bit of a battering. Let's hope they bounce back next year.

Common Tern - birds often roost on the stone pier in front of the cafe on Brownsea

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