Clove Lakes Park

About

Clove Lakes Park is a public park in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Staten Island in New York City.

Clove Lakes Park has a rich natural history with valuable ecological assets and a few remnants of the past. Chief among them are the park's lakes and ponds, outcroppings of serpentine rocks, and Staten Island's largest living thing, a 119-foot-tall (36 m) tulip tree. Clove Lakes Park is home to many species of indigenous wildlife. Visitors can see fish such as black crappie, brown bullhead, bluegill, emerald shiner, pumpkinseed, largemouth bass, and carp; birds such as red-tailed hawk, belted kingfisher, double-crested cormorant, red-winged blackbird, Canada goose, heron, egret and mallard; as well as reptiles and amphibians, like the common snapping turtle, eastern painted turtle, red-eared slider, and occasionally even the red-backed salamander. The park is also home to mammals such as eastern gray squirrel, muskrat, eastern cottontail, and eastern chipmunk.