These are a few of the pictures that I took when I first started photographing wildlife, they were originally taken on 35mm slide film and scanned on a flatbed scanner so the quality is not the best. The camera was a Canon AE1 with a Canon 70 – 210mm zoom. Unfortunately, I do not have the date, but it would be in the mid to late 1980s.
The first photo is of a female Kestrel feeding it’s young, this is one of many taken overlooking the nest. I was fortunate that at the time I was looking after an old, multi-story, textile factory. On one elevation there are a number of ledges inset into the wall, see third photo, I was able to set up and leave my camera for the whole of the period the birds where nesting.
The downside was that I was working, so I was only able to visit for short periods of time. However, it was a unique opportunity that I have not been able to repeat. What surprised me was that the kestrels hunted small birds almost exclusively, see photo 4, it was my understanding they ate mainly small mammals.
This shows the location of Kestrel's nest. You can just see the cardboard tube used to protect the camera lens.
This is a group of puffins taken on our first trip to the Farne Islands in the 1980s. When compared to photographs taken this year, they do look very dated.
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