From 4 to 9 May, I joined a group of my fellow Glamorgan birders on a 6-day, multi-location, dawn-to-dusk, exhilarating (if a little exhausting), absolutely incredible birding blast to Northumberland and beyond.

As a group we saw 149 different species of bird, I added 52 birds to my year list, of which 18 were first-in-my-lifetime sightings, and I increased my knowledge of birds well beyond my initial expectations. And I saw a wide range of magnificent sites and stunning scenery in England and Scotland that I hadn’t seen before. Huge thanks to my birding buddies Ade, Alan, Andrew, Ceri, John, Rob, Stuart, Tim, Trevor, and Trish. You’re the best!!!

The photos below show just a few of the birds we saw – there will be blogs on individual species as soon as I get through processing my 1100+ photos. In the meantime, here’s a link to my updated birding list. I’ve now got 176 of the 200 species I’m aiming to see this year (though a couple of these are dubious ticks and I should probably aim for 204 to compensate). With most of the more common birds now ticked off and this trip done and dusted, the task of finding the final 24 (or 28) species becomes a whole lot harder.