At the southern tip of Staten Island, where the Arthur Kill joins Raritan Bay, lies Conference House Park, a 254-acre New York City park of dunes, beaches, a pond, freshwater wetlands, meadows, and wooded bluffs. Though birding can be good year-round, Conference House Park is a particularly productive birding area in fall. Some refer to it as “Little Cape May” because it is the last bit of land, one that juts out into the water, for birds flying south. The effect is a bottleneck where birds rest and refuel before making the flight across the cross water.

The park’s name is derived from a Revolutionary War peace conference held September 11, 1776, after the Battle of Long Island, in a stone manor house on the property. The conference did not bring about peace. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge refused to accept “clemency and full pardon” from the British without gaining independence for the colonies. (Conference House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and featuring a 17th-century furnishings and a working kitchen, is open for guided tours.) South of Conference House on the bluffs overlooking the Arthur Kill is an interesting landmarked Native American (the Algonquian Lenape) burial ground.

Conference House Park has amassed an impressive roster of species over the years; eBirders have documented 229 species here, including rarities such as Tundra Swan, American Golden Plover, Snowy Owl, Western Kingbird, both Scissor-tailed and Ash-throated Flycatchers, and LeConte’s Sparrow.