It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. I have been mostly preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the measures we have had to take to prevent its spread, as I suspect you have been as well. However, yesterday was a lovely spring day so my wife and I decided to take a bike ride to one of our favourite spots in the city: Tommy Thompson Park, located on the Leslie Street Spit. (While observing physical distancing precautions, of course.)
The Spit, as it is popularly called, is a man made peninsula extending into Lake Ontario on the east end of downtown Toronto. It was created in 1950’s from construction debris which was the result of the building boom that Toronto was then undergoing. According to Wikipedia, the idea was to create a breakwater to expand the capacity of Toronto Harbour and accommodate increased shipping traffic that was anticipated along the St. Lawrence Seaway. That increase never materialized, but the location has remained in use for disposal of construction material to this day.
That is not the reason the Spit is such a treasured part of the City, however. As far as I know this was entirely unintentional, but in the decades following construction of the Spit, plant and animal life gradually established itself on this new tract of land that was secluded from human intrusion, to the point that it is now a wilderness that is home to hundreds of species, many of which are rare elsewhere in the province. Since it juts into Lake Ontario, it is a common stopping point for migratory birds and insects. Over 300 species of birds alone have been sighted here, and on any visit to the park one is sure to encounter groups of birdwatchers carrying their telltale paraphernalia of binoculars and cameras with large telephoto lens. (They are always more than happy to help you identify that bird you just saw.)
You can get an idea of the dramatic changes the area has undergone by comparing the recent aerial image above with this photo of what it looked like at the time of its construction:
The area is now a recognized nature reserve, managed by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. It is open to the public only on evenings, weekends and holidays, because during business hours there is still plenty of trucks driving thru to dump more debris.
One does not have to look very hard to find evidence of the landscape’s origins; what from a distance appears to be a cobble beach reveals itself, on closer inspection, to actually be strewn with slabs of reinforced concrete and fragments of masonry.
While the park is best known for it birds, it is also home for a number of mammal and reptile species. Of the latter, I have often encountered turtles here, but not today. However, we did narrowly miss running over this little guy near the entrance to the park. My guess is that he’s a melanistic Eastern Gartersnake.
But birds are usually the stars of the show out on the Spit, and the area is particularly associated with the Double-Crested Cormorant. In fact, the park is home to the North America’s largest nesting colony of the birds. This is something of a mixed blessing since, as you can tell from the picture below, their droppings are quite toxic to the trees in which they nest, some of which are also rare species such as the cottonwood. Conservation staff are therefore encouraging the birds to confine their nesting to a limited area of the park or, preferably, on the ground. These birds are not universally loved, particularly not by commercial fishermen who accuse them of driving down fish stocks, and there has even been a controversial proposal by the provincial government to allow the birds to be hunted in order to cull the population. Right now the population in the park is not nearly at its peak, which I could tell in part because the smell from the colony is not yet overpowering.
Nearby, thanks to one of those helpful birders I mentioned earlier, we located the nests of a few Black Crowned Night Herons. I’m not that great a photographer, however, so I will provide this image someone else has taken in the park.
Also frequently seen are Tree Swallows. Again, I couldn’t get a good shot of them with my phone, so this image will have to do:
Beavers are among the mammals found on the Spit. We didn’t see any on this visit, but evidence of their presence is never difficult to find. Park staff have put wire mesh around some of the trees to protect them from the depredations of our industrious, buck-toothed national symbol.
At the southern tip of the Spit, where mature trees are less abundant, one is treated to a nice view of the Toronto skyline. It reminds you how surprisingly close you are to the core of Canada’s largest urban centre.
It really is a rare privilege for urban dwellers to have access to such a remarkable natural ecosystem just a matter of minutes away. Every now and then there are some vague rumblings about developing the spit for other uses. However, the park has a very dedicated band of supporters, and it appears that Torontonians will continue to have access to our accidental wilderness for the foreseeable future.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recently produced a short documentary on the Spit, which you can view by clicking the image below (It might not be available to viewers outside of Canada, but you can probably get around that by using a VPN.)
