The Binocular Site
Leslie Street Spit, Ontario
Not far from downtown Toronto, a peninsula spreads into Lake Ontario. The Leslie Street Spit is a public and urban wilderness, making it a unique and lush habitat for hundreds of plants and birds. At only 5 kilometers long, it is car-free, yet is easily reached by walking or cycling.
Over 300 bird species have been spotted here, whether they remain resident or migrate over, including Caspian terns, snowy owls, and many more.
Look for greater white-fronted geese, snow geese, cackling geese, Canada geese, Brants, mute swans, tundra swans, wood ducks, mallards, canvasbacks, redhead ducks, ring-necked ducks, harlequin ducks, long-tailed ducks, and ruddy ducks. Gannets and pelicans, herons, egrets, hawks, cranes, and stilts are also seen.
There are a wide variety of owls too, with Eastern screech, great horned, snowy, barred, great gray, long-eared, short-eared, boreal, and northern saw-whet owls reported. Tommy Thompson Park lies on Leslie Street Spit, and is an excellent nesting and staging area for the birds.
In the park over 45 bird species are known to breed, including double-crested cormorants, ring-billed gulls, common terns, black-crowned night herons, and herring gulls. Look for nature walks and a shuttle van service, and the Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station. See the Leslie Street Spit website for more information.
The provincial bird of Ontario is the Common Loon and you can find a checklist for birding activities in Ontario here.
Photo credit to Metrix X, used with permission under the creative commons license.
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