How can I live with this disgrace? For the second successive year, domestic problems meant that I managed only one new Marilyn in 2010. Picked up while returning from a birding trip to the Farne Islands was the neat, walled summit of Ros Hill in Northumbria with its alleged long-distance view of various cathedrals. A few repeats and Humps lessened my shame.
Country-bagging continued with a visit to Estonia. As a long-time classical music fan I was delighted to stay in a Baltic resort once frequented by Tchaikovsky. A huge memorial in the form of a stone seat features a nearby push-button device which was supposed to play snatches of his best music - presumably Swan Lake or the 1812 Overture. Alas, it was broken.
My final big 'job' before retirement as a daily feature writer was a trip to Churchill, the 'polar bear capital of the world', in Manitoba, Canada. It was September so usually too early for the iconic creatures, but I had plenty of sightings of beluga whales in the estuary of the Churchill River. I rode a wheeled cart hauled by a team of huskies (an Arctic Roll!) and trod some fine, remote countryside, always accompanied by a guide carrying a rifle if I ventured outside the 1000-population town. Hungry polar bears can kill!
Bioda Mor, Oisebhal and Conachair (photo: Alan Dawson)
