Do the birds know something's up, no pun intended?

Backyard feeders normally abuzz with jay and cardinal music on a summer day are pretty much quiet.

The pride of free-running felines who engage in a daily cat-and-bird game lurks in the azalea bushes, waiting for a quarry which hasn't yet appeared.

Is it Gustav, still far beyond the South Louisiana horizon, or have the birds just gotten wise?

There are no tell-tale feathers scattered on the ground around the feeders, no evidence that the cats have figured out that teamwork would net them lunch.

Teamwork of another sort is visible around the city.

Families are in yards, relocating anything light enough to get caught up ahead of Gustav winds.

Come to think of it, with the current measure at 145 mph, what isn't light enough?

Men, women and children who have decided to head north are loading cars, pickups and RVs, hoping to be on the road ahead of the exodus from parishes more south and east.

La. 13, a mainline from points south of Interstate 10, through Eunice and on to Interstate 49 south of Alexandria, is beginning to fill up.

By nightfall, certainly by early Sunday, it will be slow going.

And slow, also, is the wait for whatever Gustav is going to bring.