Soaking, Stormy South

We woke up this morning to drenching rains and weather alerts for thunderstorms and possible tornadoes just NW of here. The weather headlines on weather.com read "Soaking, Stormy South: A significant storm will result in heavy rain, flooding, severe weather, and strong winds as it spreads north and east."

So we headed over to McDonalds for coffee and an Egg McMuffin, read the USA Today and headed back to pack up, Fortunately the rain let up to a light drizzle so we didn't get too wet. We had already decided to stay at a motel tonight, which seems like an especially good idea now.

Yesterday we spent the morning birding at the campground. The state park has a small camping area--only 28 sites--and a huge day-use area with nature trails. Great birding, lots of vireos, warblers, woodpeckers, and bluebirds. In the afternoon we went to a new Audubon Center. It just opened 2 days ago, and we were surprised to find that it is in a very early stage of development. The office is in a small house on the property and virtually all the plans are future: boardwalk, boat tours, beautiful new building. But what a great visit it was. The director spent almost 2 hours showing us around the property, explaining how they'll go about revamping the site, teaching us about the native and invasive plant species, showing us snails and crabs in the bayou. He even gave us directions to the best seafood restaurant in the area. We're eager to see it again in a year or so.