Day 3. Waking up in Hobart with a rainbow out the window:
Actually, it was a double rainbow:
After breakfast we loaded up our luggage in the van and headed over to Ralphs Bay Conservation Area by Lauderdale to look for water and shore birds:
Masked Lapwings and a White-faced Heron:
Mallards:
Pied Oystercatchers, Masked Lapwings, and what looked like a 2nd year immature Pacific Gull:
We stopped at Pipeclay Lagoon and had a look at some Noisy Miners (note the tongue) among other birds that were further in the distance. Wikipedia describes this positioning thusly, “The ‘trident bill display’ involves a fully open bill with the tongue raised and protruding and is a higher-intensity submissive display.”
We found a parking spot along a busy road to check out some far away water birds.
Musk Duck:
Great Crested Grebe:
Eurasian Skylark as shot through the van window:
Out of the van and a look at Black Swans:
A better view of the Eurasian Skylark:
I am pretty sure these were Little Black Cormorants:
A main focus of our day was to visit a shore off Orielton Lagoon Nature Reserve:
Red-capped Plovers among the plants:
We left the lagoon and got back on the road.
Galahs foraging on a lawn by the side of the road:
Swamp Harrier:
Australian Shelducks:
Black Swan:
Eurasian Coots:
A juvenile Magpie begged its mum for food (its cries were adorable-sounding):
Hoary-headed Grebe:
Australian Shoveler and Eurasian Coots:
Interesting plant growth patterning:
Wild deer:
What looks like lifeless terrain actually has a few Banded Lapwings on it:
We arrived at our next destination for the evening, Cradle Mountain Lodge. There are several animals that casually forage on the grounds near people who stay there (including wallabies, wombats, and echidnas).
A wombat rushed across the parking lot road (from one lawn to another):
A Bennett’s wallaby was on the lawn the wombat rushed over to:
The wombat and wallaby munched on the grass near each other.
View of the pond from my room. A platypus (which I saw and photographed the following day) lives there:
Great view, too bad I only had about a half hour to enjoy it before it was time to go to dinner then bed! 🙂
