Cape Cod - first day - afternoon

Next up we headed the short distance to the Audubon reserve at Wellfleet and were immediately rewarded with views of Eastern Bluebird, Tree Swallow and Baltimore Oriole:




















We went through the centre to access the trails and were startled first by a plunge attack from a Cooper's Hawk on some unsuspecting bird, that escaped, but which drew the attention of a Red-tailed Hawk which alighted on the tree no more then five metres from me:
















Birds on the various trails included Great Black-backed Gulls, White-breasted Nuthatch, more singing Northern Cardinals:




















A Northern Mockingbird alighted on a tree above us whilst we ate lunch:




















And an Eastern Towhee (ssp. rufous-sided) was perched on a bush proclaiming his fitness:


















Of course it's not just birds, we also saw Musk Rat, and crabs, hundreds and hundreds of little crabs which scuttle down their little burrows as you approach. In some places it's actually very hard not to step on them, but we managed it:














And squirrels:

Very cute! Back at the visitor centre, we stopped to top-up our water bottles and chat with the staff about other good birding locations on the cape when a Baltimore Oriole landed on one of the feeder, turns out the staff load some feeders with jam, which the birds really like:

So that was Friday!