Last spring I made a 716-mile road trip. My destination was Grantown on Spey and the breathtakingly remote stillness of the Caledonian pine forests.
It is the only place in the British Isles to see the punk rocker of the tit family. There are about 1,700 pairs and when I arrived in March they were elusive in tree tops.
The crested tit, or "crestie" as it is known by the locals, has the most glorious upstanding black and white quiff which takes me back to the halcyon days of sculptured hairstyles during the era of the Sex Pistols, Ramones, The Clash, and The Skids.
We spent several days walking near the banks of the River Spey and deep into dense woodland. My wife clocked one. I didn't. After three days we returned to Manchester.
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