A trip to the zoo and the Fury of Mother Nature

We decided to take all the girls to the zoo for Maddis birthday. Unfortunately the weather forecast was not great, but we were determined to go anyway. As soon as we pull up at the zoo carpark, the rain starts! So we run off to the reptile house to keep as dry as possible. Once inside, the heavens opened, but as we were inside, we had no idea exactly how severe it got! More on that further down the post....
Despite the lousy weather we had a great day. The animals were all so close (trying to keep dry too!) and I got some amazing photos. I love this one of the Frill Neck Lizard! The girls got a real laugh out of the gibbons who put on a real show for us. We stayed until about 4 o'clock and wet and tired made our weary way home. On the drive home we noticed trees torn apart and debris all over the place, apparently quite a storm had passed through. Nothing could of prepared us for the sight we would encounter at home, in our backyard!
For the past six years that we have lived in this house, this huge gum tree has stood in the corner of our back yard. It has provided us with shade in the summer, a tyre swing hanging from its branch has swung our girls for many hours, it has been a home and feeding ground for countless birds, including the many black cockotoos you see in the photo above...
And this day it came crashing down! Tumbling on to our shed and pergolah and the aviary! It was all chaos as we attempted to save the birds left in the aviary.


Unfortunately all the canarys had flown the coop, but the 16 weeros were still in the aviary. Luckily the tree had only crushed one corner. We managed to catch 13 weeros and 3 canaries, so luckily only lost 6 birds! Now we have plenty of firewood!!!