Wildlife Viewing.
Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Street Spit holds approximately 55,000 breeding pairs of Ring-billed Gulls — about 6% of the world population — in colonies on the spit's accidental wilderness, alongside Black-crowned Night-Herons and Common Terns and a major spring and fall passerine migration stopover. Inland, the Lower Humber River carries fall and winter chinook salmon and steelhead runs visible from the same year-round-access corridor between Eglinton Avenue and Lake Ontario.
The brief.
Tommy Thompson Park is open weekends, holidays, and weekdays 4 p.m.–9 p.m. only; the access road is closed during weekday daytime construction hours. Off-trail access into the colonial bird nesting areas is closed during the breeding season.
Spring waterbird migration runs through April–May; fall raptor and passerine migration peaks September–October; the Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station bands through both windows. Lower Humber salmon-run viewing peaks late September through November (chinook) and continues through winter (steelhead).
Humber Marshes anchor migratory waterfowl stopovers in spring and fall. Rouge NUP supports 261 bird species across the southern park.
4. places.
- 01
Tommy Thompson Park / Leslie Street Spit
Globally significant IBA (ON-02, 2000); ~55,000 breeding pairs of Ring-billed Gulls (about 6% of world population), Black-crowned Night-Heron and Common Tern colonies, Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station; major spring/fall passerine migration stopover.
- 02
High Park
23-ha Black Oak Savannah; Grenadier Pond (Provincially Significant Wetland Complex).
- 03
Humber Marshes
Major Lake Ontario river-mouth marsh and migratory waterfowl stopover at the lower Humber.
- 04
Rouge National Urban Park
261 bird species, 65 fish species; one of the most biologically diverse green spaces in Canada.
Today's read.
Cool but comfortable for layered effort · light winds · clean air.
By the book.
- 01Tommy Thompson Park is open to the public only on weekends, holidays, and weekdays 4 pm–9 pm; off-trail access into colonial bird nesting areas closed during breeding season.Source ↗
- 02Lower Humber River fishing rules (relevant to salmon-run viewing): FMZ 20 standard rules; no fishing in posted sanctuary zones.Source ↗