BEST BIRD-WATCHING
Wellfleet Bay Beach at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is accessible only via sanctuary trails. Start from the nature center in South Wellfleet, and a chorus of chirping birds will greet you like red-winged blackbirds and more unusual species such as rufous-sided towhees. Explore the marsh trails, and you'll wind up on the beach where there's no swimming. Be on the look out for the more than 200 species the Massachusetts Audubon Society has cataloged.

Portions of beaches at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island in Newburyport are opened and closed according to the schedules of nesting birds. But the beach near parking lot 1 is open all summer long, and the thickets, mud flats, and marsh areas of the refuge are excellent for spotting black-bellied plovers, short-billed dowitchers, and colorful warblers.