A wildlife video showing a young Caspian Tern juvenile learning how to fish in the Ottawa River before migrating south for the winter.

I've been following a couple of awesome Caspian Terns here in Ottawa in a bay on the Ottawa River. A Mom and her chick, which is now a juvenile, hung out on a sandbar in the bay for the last 3-4 weeks during the daytime. The juvenile, who I call "Junior", could be heard all across the bay and the nearby park squealing, whining and begging for food - all day long. Then last week, I noticed that Mom seemed to simply stop responding to Junior's endless whining.... and suddenly he started flying like an avian Top Gun and diving like an Olympian. Wow, what a show!

Unfortunately, it was cloudy, overcast and at times misty the few times I was able to be there so the lighting was generally bad and I wasn't able get the kind of quality footage I was hoping for. I did the best I could in post, but I'm still not all that happy. In terms of slow motion vs normal speed, the clips where Junior is moving the fastest is the normal speed, so tracking him, especially when he was up close was a real challenge. Anyways, I had a lot of fun doing this and I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,
Rudy

copyright © Rudy Pohl, Ottawa 2023
Camera: Canon R5
Lens: Canon RF100-500 L
Editing: Davinci Resolve 18

Music Credit
"Borderless" by Aakash Ghandi
YouTube Audio Library