Friends of the Spit

Click here for our December 2025 Newsletter

Prepared by our member Edward O’Connor, this checklist lists, and comments on, the 22 species observed. This continues our Friends’ stewardship and outreach! Click here

With the discovery of a Common Checkered Skipper on The Spit in September (Toronto’s second verified record ever!), we felt it was time to update the checklist. As well as adding species seen since its last iteration, the checklist has been extensively revised to reflect the new taxonomic orders and shuffles. Oh, the Latin… Please click here for the checklist.

As of January 2024, 333 bird species have been sighted at The Spit. Since then, Spit sightings of a Townsend‘s Warbler and a Swallow-tailed Kite have been approved by the OBRC, and two other species – Tufted Duck and Neotropic Cormorant – have all been reported from The Spit. Pending acceptance of the latter two by the OBRC, they will be added to our checklist, which will bring the total to 337 !! However, in a recent taxonomic change, Hoary Redpoll has been lumped with Common Redpoll. This change means that the species list reverts to 336. The linked 2024 Checklist has been prepared by Friends of the Spit and reflects this current total. Click here

Continuing our tradition of stewardship at The Spit, we are pleased to announce that one of our members, Ed O’Connor, a respected odonate enthusiast, has completed the first Odonate Checklist for The Leslie Street Spit. Odonate Checklist

Tommy Thompson Park is a significant wildlife area and as such there is a strict no dogs / no pets policy.

TTP is managed as an ‘urban wilderness’ and one of the objectives is to provide critical habitat areas for wildlife along the waterfront. Over 300 species of birds have been documented at TTP, many of which use the park as a summer breeding area. Several species at the park are ground nesting birds that would be in danger of having their nests destroyed by dogs if they were allowed in the park. In addition to ground nesting birds, fledglings from tree nesting birds are also at risk of being injured or killed as they practice their first flights or perch low to the ground.

Accidental Wilderness, by Walter Kehm and Robert Burley, with contributions from Friends of the Spit and others associated with The Spit over the years, has won the Heritage Toronto 2021 Book Award !!!!

“The jury praised the book for its powerful message of community, advocacy, and action to build and protect a unique part of Toronto’s environmental heritage.”

CONGRATULATIONS, and CHEERS !!!

Local artist and photographer Robert Burley tells us more about Toronto’s Tommy Thompson Park, and explains why this fortuitous urban miracle offers a hopeful narrative about how nature can flourish in a modern-day city. (Learn more)

The Outer Harbour East Headland video was produced in 1978 by Don Adams, for Metro Cable TV. Thanks to Don for his sleuthing to uncover a copy, and thanks to ROGERStv for permission to post it on our website. Enjoy… the sentiments ring true 40 years later!!!!!!!

Note: Press Play below and wait approximately 35 seconds for the video to start.

The oft-delayed construction of the new entry building at Leslie and Unwin is now complete!

Designed by DTAH, the new Tommy Thompson Park Entranceway and Pavilion project establishes a serviced park entrance at the popular Leslie Street Spit in Toronto. The design includes an improved parking lot, shuttle bus turnaround, and the development of a new public pavilion and outdoor interpretive area.

Designed by DTAH, the new entrance facilities seek to demonstrate best practices in low-impact development by establishing a parking lot knit into its natural setting, structured with landscaped berms and bioswales to support stormwater management, habitat expansion and visual screening strategies.