Park Update – Fall 2026
By Kristen Osborne, Chief Park Naturalist
Another busy summer has come and gone. It feels like just yesterday that we were hiring and preparing for the season. Presqu’ile saw another busy season for both camping and day use, but the season isn’t quite over yet as the campgrounds are open until October 26th with lots of weekday availability if you are looking for one final camping trip.
We have lots of new Ontario Parks and Presqu’ile specific merchandise to check out at the Park Store this season with new items arriving just this month! If you haven’t been in this summer to see all the changes, we encourage you to come check it out before it closes for the season on October 11th. We plan to have the front lobby open again this November and December for all your Christmas shopping, stay tuned to our Facebook page for updates.
Our Discovery team has been hard at work this summer, they delivered 142 programs to over 8,400 visitors between Canada Day and Labour Day, including four special events. Over the course of the summer over 11,000 visitors explored the Nature Centre learning about fossils, monarchs, turtles and more! At the Lighthouse Interpretive Centre over 17,000 people uncovered some of the history of Presqu’ile.
This summer we had Piping Plovers nesting on the beach again, which marks the fifth year in a row these endangered birds have decided to make Presqu’ile their home! Saga the male has been nesting at Presqu’ile since 2022 but this year his long-time mate Lola didn’t return. Luckily another female plover was on the scene. Sesame tried to raise a nest last year at Presqu’ile but her mate disappeared before the chicks could hatch, but she decided to return to Presqu’ile anyways and it didn’t take her long to pair up with Saga. This new pair managed to raise all four of their chicks to fledgling, which doesn’t often happen. We hope our four new Piping Plovers will one day return to Ontario to nest. Thank you to all park visitors who gave the plovers their space and followed our beach policies. Thank you also to the volunteers who helped monitor the plovers and educated fellow beachgoers about these rare shorebirds.
Volunteers are a large part of Presqu’ile, and the park staff would like to acknowledge that we are very grateful for all the support. Volunteers help to make this park great and we could not do many of the things that we do today without volunteers and their support.
