A 5km man-made peninsula that juts into Lake Ontario — and one of Toronto's best-kept secrets. Built from construction fill in the 1950s, it's now a wildlife refuge with 317 bird species, double-crested cormorant colonies, and skyline views.
Neighbourhood: Port Lands · Address: Leslie Street Spit, Toronto, ON · Hours: Sat–Sun & holidays 9am–6pm (closed weekdays for truck traffic) · Price Range: Free · Editorial status: Not yet verified
Escape the city without leaving Toronto: here, you’ll wander an untamed, flat expanse dotted with wildflower meadows, migrating birds, and sweeping downtown views.
Unlike Toronto’s polished waterfront parks, Tommy Thompson Park is rugged, raw, and built on reclaimed construction debris. Birdwatchers flock here for the city’s largest cormorant colony and seasonal migrations, and the sense of wildness feels genuinely unexpected this close to downtown.
The Leslie Street Spit — officially Tommy Thompson Park — is the most improbable nature reserve in North America. It's a 5-kilometre man-made peninsula that juts south into Lake Ontario from the foot of Leslie Street, built entirely from construction rubble and fill that the city dumped here over decades starting in the 1950s. They intended it as a breakwater for a proposed outer harbour. Instead, nature colonised the rubble, and what grew up here — without planting, without engineering, without human design — is one of the most ecologically rich bird habitats in the Great Lakes.
Over 317 bird species have been recorded at Tommy Thompson Park. The double-crested cormorant colony that nests here is one of the largest freshwater cormorant colonies on the planet — thousands of birds nesting in the trees, the sound of them audible from a long distance. Herons, egrets, terns, migrating warblers, owls, peregrine falcons — this is a serious birding destination that draws ornithologists from across the continent during spring and fall migration.
But you don't need to be a birder to love this place. The road running down the spit's spine is closed to cars on weekends (it's open for construction trucks on weekdays, which is why the park is weekend-only), making it a perfect cycling destination — 10 kilometres return, completely flat, with the Toronto skyline growing and shrinking ahead of you and Lake Ontario on both sides. The view from the tip looking back at the downtown skyline — CN Tower, the condo towers, the city's silhouette across the water — is one of the most dramatically beautiful in Toronto and almost no one knows about it.
Bring a bike (Bike Share Toronto has a station at the entrance), arrive early for the birds, and budget 2–3 hours for the full out-and-back.
The Leslie Street Spit (officially Tommy Thompson Park) is a 5-kilometre man-made peninsula extending into Lake Ontario from the foot of Leslie Street in the Port Lands. Built from construction fill starting in the 1950s, it has naturally evolved into a major wildlife refuge with over 317 recorded bird species, one of the world's largest freshwater cormorant colonies, and diverse wetland and meadow habitats. Entry is free.
Tommy Thompson Park is open to pedestrians and cyclists on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays from 9am–6pm (hours may vary seasonally). The park is closed on weekdays because the roads are used by construction trucks dumping fill material. Seasonal guided walks and birding tours are available — check TRCA.ca for programming.
Tommy Thompson Park is one of the best birding sites in Ontario and the Great Lakes region. Over 317 species have been recorded. Highlights include one of the world's largest freshwater double-crested cormorant colonies, great blue herons, great egrets, Caspian terns, and during spring and fall migration, an enormous diversity of warblers, shorebirds, and raptors. Bring binoculars and a field guide.
Yes — cycling is the best way to explore the full length of the spit. The road running the 5km length is closed to cars on weekends and is flat and car-free. The full return trip is 10km. Bike Share Toronto has a station at the park entrance at the foot of Leslie Street, accessible from the Martin Goodman Trail along the waterfront. No rental is available within the park.
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