I don’t think many people get out to the east end to see these bluffs. It’s not even very deep into Scarborough. It’s right on the western edge of the borough. But it’s still far enough for most people to not be going out there very often.
Ok so anyways, let’s set this scene. It’s August 26, so getting into late summer, probably fed up with the heat at this point. If you were in school still you know the days are numbered before the ‘summer’ ends and you get back on the grind of whatever it is when you are in school. I guess it’s just the loss of free time. I had a job in august of 2023. So, there wasn’t a gain or loss of free time. I just had 2 days a week to myself. Anyways, not sure why we chose to come out this way, I was always up for long bike rides and this is a decent long one. From the Annex where I lived to the bluffs is like. Idk like 15km?
I have done some research on the Scarborough bluffs so ya’ll can become knowledgeable on these interesting formations.
Very interesting stuff.
Connor and Joe enjoying an ice frap from the not timhortens called the birch cliff cafe, interestingly, not on birch cliff road. The thing about the bluffs is that it’s steep. This offers great views over the lake, and empty scenery proving uniformed and un-distracting backdrops. Good for portrait photos as it pulls much of the focus into the foreground.
Don’t get too close to the edge tho. If you look around off this look out you see that the drop is lethal.
It’s usually difficult to capture slopes on cameras. You don’t have the context for how everything is oriented. So I hope the steepness can be appreciated.
At the top edge of the cliff, just underneath the greenery, there are little holes. These are nests for bank swallows, a bird I don’t need to do additional research on as I have already learned about them in a project from school last year.
They are endangered, they make nests in the sandy banks such as that you see here and as developers try to develop sandy bluffs into concrete lots you can imagine that their habitat is shrinking.
I’m not sure if these ones are used as habitat, or if they’re empty. Hard to tell from the photo.
Obvious dangers involved. All photos are taken from this side of the fence.
A big reason why I wanted to write about this visit to the bluffs is because I managed to get this picture of a juvenile red tail hawk.
I’m gonna say, this is easily the best picture of a bird I’ve ever taken, and it will probably be the case for a while.
Look at how the bird soars high above with the soft watercolour clouds behind it. The hawk is in acceptable focus, during an action with its wing tips bending as it glides around.
It’s a big deal cuz my main camera is the Sony a6400, and usually this thing cannot focus on what I want it to. I don’t know if it’s because I have never read the users manual but this is like a 1/100000 shot.
The fact that the camera didn’t focus on the tree is crazy to me. This shots a little less nice. The action doesn’t make sense. Where is the bird going? Into the tree? It almost looks like the bird is infront of the leaves. Oh well. This is not one of the best bird shots I’ve ever taken. The colours are nice, at least.
Far down below are the stationary birds. These are a lot easier to capture. They sit here and feel the breeze coming off the lake as they poop and yell at each other.
Not actually sure what this park is called. It’s big and green and fairly quiet. Connor and Joe looking for 4 leaf covers, I think?
One guess as to who this is.
Setting off in one of the directions we did manage to sort of, find the way down there.
This is more inline with the standard of focus I get with the camera.
If you’ve ever been to bluffers park, you know how steep this hill is.
But it really looks like he is casually cruising around, not a 15% slope.
Once you get down to the bottom, it’s a large flat park, peninsula kinda deal. Im not spitting facts but Im gonna say that it was built out by the TRCA to control some erosion and keep the park at yacht club down here surviving a few more winters. A lot of these erosion controlled armour stone waterfront parks kinda feel the same, but they are all sorta built the same so it’s probably that.
There is a secret zone though. Although, not that secret. If you walk back towards the cliffs you will probably find it. A nice sand beach filled with the ashes of various fires and jetski-dudes. I took great care not to take photos of these guys. I wanted to maintain the illusion that it’s calm and secluded down here.
A safety fence to keep us on the safe side of this area.
This is a ring billed gull. Very common in this part of Ontario gazing out into the water. Thinking:
So, we are going to wrap it up now. So I will part some good advice onto you. This is the best beach in Toronto I have found so far. Its sandy shore reaches out far far far into the lake. it’s far from the downtown so, little trash and the water is warm. Three years later, I sure theres a TikTok that blew this spot up but. I would like to go back someday.
Oh, and here is an insane photo of Joe.
That was cool. Take me back