Our leisurely Cape Cod habits are to take an early morning 1-hour brisk exercise walk before breakfast with maybe a quick dip after, then a slower nature walk later in the morning. All interspersed with swims, of course. Choice of ponds, Wellfleet Bay, Cape Cod Bay, or ocean - all within a few miles.
One cool thing for amateur naturalists is the variety of habitats you can encounter in a one hour walk on the Outer Cape ("Lower Cape"). I scouted out this remote sand road where, within a mile, you go from dunes to salt marsh to fresh water marsh to open meadow to Pitch Pine forest.
A hand-painted sign nailed to a tree on this road read "Caution: Dogs, Kids, and Turtles." Meaning Box Turtles.
All decent humans love Box Turtles.
My bird list of commonly seen or heard was modest on this trip: Osprey, the 3 gulls (Herring, GBB, Laughing), Green Heron, Pine Warbler, Parula Warbler, Yellow-throat Warbler, Yellow Warbler, RE Vireo, Cedar Waxwing, Cormorant, Tree Swallow, Piping Plover, Killdeer, Semipalmated Plover, Willet, Mallard, Black Duck, Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Kingbird, Common Tern, Great Crested Flycatcher, Chickadee, Cardinal, Grackles, Cowbird, Red Wing. Forgot some. Most shorebirds are up north breeding on the tundra now.
Typical Outer Cape uplands: Pitch Pine and Scrub Oak, with grassy patches where enough sun gets through. Here be Box Turtles:
Large salt marsh between the South Wellfleet Audubon and Lieutenant Island, with a hummock where the Diamondback Terrapins lay their eggs:
