I awoke this morning at 5.30am to this sky of glowing red , very strange looking, quite eerie actually with lots of choking dust and high winds... apparently the dust storm had blown in overnight from North Western New South Wales. The visibility was limited so aeroplanes were being diverted from Sydney to Melbourne airport, ferry services on the harbour were cancelled and some public transport services. By 6.30am a lot of the redness had gone, just replaced by thick dust in the air giving everything a strange yellow glow. I am sitting here typing this text now and looking out of my window, the wind has picked up again and is gusting around the house, the prediction is for wind speeds of 100 km/ph...getting close to that now I would say, I hope I don't lose any trees or my roof...fingers crossed!
In the video it was business as usual, some of the magpies had arrived for breakfast though not all, others were probably taking shelter somewhere in the undergrowth and trees. (The sound quality is not great, I had to reduce the video from 130mb to 5mb). The noises you can hear apart from the magpies warbling song and other birds is that of the wind, an aeroplane being diverted from its normal flight path and in the background if you look closely you can see an Australian raven. The wind should help blow away all of the dust and hopefully clear the atmosphere, there is a strange ionic smell and taste of iron in the air as Australian desert dust contains large amounts of iron, that is what has made the atmosphere so rusty and red coloured.
I saw the news this morning, I feel for the people of Georgia in the USA, so much damage, lives and property lost...I hope all of my friends there are safe.... ♥
I saw the news this morning, I feel for the people of Georgia in the USA, so much damage, lives and property lost...I hope all of my friends there are safe.... ♥
22 comments:
oh and now i get to hear a Magpie too! Very cool!
Yes the flooding has been awful down there! We havent seen any of it thankfully!
Happy fall!
Hi Helene dear
unfortunately I had to reduce the size of the video to upload it onto Blogger so the sound quality is not as good as was...but it gives you some idea of how the Magpies sing.
Its so awful here today, the wind is so strong, its blowing around the house and rattling the windows, still very dusty.
Thankfully we don't have floods, though we did have a thunder storm and very heavy rain last night which we will need for the Summer months.
Thanks, Happy Fall to you, we are in Spring but you would never know it. xo ♡
wow ....
amazing colors from the dust storm. hope the wind has abated and no trees or roofs were lost! loved the video of your birds, btw. loved their sound.
Yes Foamy dear, the colours were amazing, bright red to brilliant orange at the start...I always wake up early and was surprised by the red glow.
No trees or roofs lost but there are leaves and branches everywhere plus a thick film of reddish/brown dust on the cars, driveway & inside where I had windows open.
That was my first video with my camera, its a shame I had to reduce it so much to upload it on blogger, thanks I'm pleased you liked the bird sounds. ♡
Spooky!
It's the coming of the poor hoarse men of the Acropolis! We're doomed! We're doomed! Arrrrgh!
What? In Sydney? Not in Melbourne? Oh, that's OK then. Perhaps it's not the end of the world after all.
Better bring the washing in, though.
Yes Lee dear, it did look a little strange when I first woke up but after stepping outside with my camera and smelling and tasting the iron oxide in the air and getting almost blown over with the wind I could tell that it was a dust storm. ♡
Lol dear J Cosmo
did you mean the four horseman of the Apocalypse?
Well they would have been poorly and hoarse if they rode into this dust storm...very gritty and difficult to breathe. :-)
Yes in Sydney, so its not the end of the world, the Melbournians are safe.
I will have to re-wash the washing its now all dusty and brown. ♡
A storm is brewing.
Sorry to learn that we've also screwed up the weather in the Southern Hemisphere.
:-(
Right puggs..i was thinking the same..is it because of global warming?
but the pics seem beautiful to me. I felt like i would have gone out.
amazing video. so exotic the birds...i love that warbler. and the red sky of sand. very apocalyptic! i love it. i am soooo glad you took the video - be sure to film all australian weirdness okay? you have to entertain us. grrrrrrrhahahaahaha
well in jawja today the sun came back out. thank God. our basement flooded and a retaining wall between us and the next door neighbors gave way but all are okay. the chickens yard is a mud put but great for bringing earthworms up. its open season out there!
xoxox
Yes Lamby dear there sure was a storm brewing, lots of red dust and high winds.
I hope it rains sometime soon to wash away all of the red dirt, it's everywhere. ♡
Puggles my sweet,no need to apologise, I think we have done just as much damage to the environment as any developed country.
We have had dust storms in the past but never like that before. xo ♡
Schweta dear, I don't know whether it is caused by global warming or not, dust storms are common in desert in Central Australia and we have had some in the cities before but not as severe as that.
It looked unusual and the colour was quite beautiful, I did go out in it but it wasn't very pleasant, windy, gritty,you could smell and taste the iron oxide in the air.
Many people had difficulty breathing and had to go to hospital. xo ♡
Lol K9 ...amazing video? You are far too kind to me,that was my first video attempt with my camera, it looked and sounded much better before I had to reduce the size but I'm pleased you enjoyed my little warbling friends.
There were some calls of other birds there as well.
Yes the red sky was quite spectacular and I will be sure to film any weirdness that occurs here next time. :-)
Pleased to hear that the sun is out again, sorry your basement has flooded, that would be annoying to clean up, plus the collapsed retaining wall.
Take care.
I'm sure the hens are enjoying the worms. oxoxox ♡
The world is an amazing place- and I feel so blessed to be able to sneak in here and there and read about it first hand :)
Thank you for posting this!
:)
Thanks Mayden dear
yes a truly amazing world and such an unusual event for me to witness so I wanted to post pictures so that you could see it from where I live.
Thank goodness the sky is now back to normal, a lovely shade of blue but I'm still cleaning up the red dust...it's everywhere. xo ♡
Thanks Ruela dear
Wow is right, I thought you would find it interesting...almost a blood red sky. :) ♡
Thanks for your pictures and video, Dianne. I have a son and his family in Sydney, but waiting for pictures would be a waste of time!
Your magpies look very different from ours in the UK - not quite so brash looking and more interesting.
Love your bob-cat, by the way, he/she's cute.
Thanks Judith for stopping by my blog...nice to see you here, I have seen you over at Lee's blog.
I'm so pleased you enjoyed my pictures, it is quite an unusual event but according to the news tonight we are to expect another dust storm overnight but hopefully not so severe.
I hope your son sends you some pictures soon.
Yes our magpies here are very tame and friendly, I enjoy having them in my garden, I feel privileged that they let me hand feed them.
Yes Bob Cat is very cute, I have three cats, two tabbies and a black one just like the widget up there.
My Bob Cat is my 'secretary' as he spends a lot of the day snoozing in my 'in tray'; all of my cats live indoors because I want to protect the wildlife and birds in my garden...I will post some photos of them in the future. ♡
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