NorthernPixl

22/06/2026

What a way to spend father's day!

Yesterday I spent the day with the family on a fantastic trip to the Farne Islands. The weather couldn't have been better and the views across to the mainland were stunning. Cheviot and Hedgehope standing proud on the horizon in the distance too.

On the island, the birds certainly put on a show too for us along with seals too.

Puffins are just a cuteness overload and watching these birds wizz past with beaks stuffed with sand eels is a spectacle to say the least. It was also great fun trying to capture these fly by with the camera as they are so fast in the air.

The terns were also on top form and gave us all a good laugh when they started defending their nest and territory. Dive bombing anyone who dared to walk past their nest so definitely wear a hat if you're visiting! 😂

To top it all off, I had a surprise visit from my son in the afternoon and we all enjoyed a lovely bbq. Awesome day all round 😊

16/06/2026

An incredible evening seeing these three absolutely beautiful long eared owls.

All three were flying around at one point, gracefully soaring across the tops of the trees. Occasionally, they would sit long enough to get a few images and some video footage too then off into the air they'd go again.

What an experience and one I'll not forget in a hurry! 😊

15/06/2026

The classic barn owl on a post photograph, an image that never gets old. I love watching these owls fly and hunt as they just look so graceful.

It's really nice to see these local barn owls doing well and at this moment, busy feeding young ones in the nest. Long my they remain around so I can enjoy learning more about their behaviour and watching the young take their first flight (fingers crossed 🤞)

07/06/2026

An amazing and pretty rare sight yesterday down on the river. A female kingfisher perched lovely for a few minutes and then out of nowhere came the male.

The male presented the female with a fish as a gift and then swiftly got down to business 🫣

Kingfishers tend to start breeding around March and continue all the way through to as late as August. They can also raise two to three broods per season.

Seeing this breeding pair means there should be young that appear in a few weeks or so. Fingers crossed they are successful 🤞

Such beautiful birds and up there as one of my favourites.

03/06/2026

28/05/2026

Such a beautiful sight last night!

Three young tawny owls all perched high in the trees just gazing out across the world.

They are proper little fluff balls but they won't take long to grow and fledge so this was a massive privilege to see 😁

10/05/2026

An absolutely incredible evening last night on Holy Island!

One of my top bucket list shots was to get Emmanuel Head with the milky way arching across the top of it. Last night I managed it!! 😍

It's my first ever panoramic milky way and I couldn't be any happier with it. Eight separate images for the panorama, all stitched together in Lightroom.

The slog from the car with all my gear was so worth it and I knew it would be if the weather played ball. I packed way too much stuff but also I wasn't going without my chair! I love taking a chair because it reminds you to just sit and enjoy the sky rather than be consumed with faffing with the camera. I could have just sat and looked up at the unreal dark skies we have for hours and hours.

Another win for my website too as most other apps and websites were saying it would be a no go for the whole night due to cloud. Mine however said there wouldn't be any, I trusted it and headed up there for the night. I'm so glad I did! 😊

08/05/2026

Amazing what you can see in just a few hours when keeping your eyes peeled. This is a small selection of what I saw while I waited for a kingfisher along my local river. No kingfisher this time unfortunately but it's still great to see everything else too.

There's always something out there worth keeping your eyes peeled for!

I love this time of year when everything is busy either breeding, nesting or just taking advantage of the sunny weather 😉

05/05/2026

Hadrians Wall looking beautiful in the fading sunlight from this weekend. It's a place I don't visit as often as I'd like so I'm going to make a conscious effort to explore these parts more in the coming months.

I'm also doing a hike along the wall in a few weeks so it was great to see what I was in store for me! 🥾

01/05/2026

Crap image but please read why this is special in it's own way! 👇

So the image and video aren't great because of the haze BUT what is great is the project I've been working on for the last couple of months proved it works last night!

I've been working on a totally free moon/sun rise and milky way planning tool in my website. Similar to the apps most people use currently but without any fees or pay walls to access the full features.

This week I set the page live and planned a moon rise from the Northumberland coast and to my amazement, the plan was perfect to the second! I'm honestly over the moon (pardon the pun 😂) that it works as intended and I hope other people can find it useful too.

As with anything new like this, it might need some tweaking here and there but please feel free to use it, share it and give me any feedback good or bad you come across as it will all help.

Use it, share away and enjoy 😉

www.northernpixl.co.uk/planning.html