Rondeau to Reid: Birds, Butterflies, Plants

I went down to Rondeau again to be greeted by cold and fog yet again.  Weather is so much nicer inland!
Outside the park I heard a Virginia Rail in the marsh along the causeway.  Several Green-winged Teal were there too. (Always check for Eurasian!).
At south point trail, a Brown Thrasher was singing.  Several were in the park today, and they were not seen yesterday.

poor photo:  weather to blame

With Steve and Jim I walked South Point Trail.  We came across another Pine Warbler (in Pines, no less!).  We consider it a different bird than yesterday as these were several km apart.  The only other bird of note was FOY Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
Lots of Juncos, kinglets, creepers, sparrows were around as usual.  More chippies in today.

The pond at corner of Bisnett and Erieau Roads had 2 Greater Yellowlegs and a Lesser Yellowlegs today.  Keith Burk had a snipe earlier.  This is an excellent spot that should be checked regularly.  I predict a good bird will be found there this spring!  This is next to the spot a Cattle Egret has been seen on a couple of occasions.

Blenheim Lagoons had lots of ducks and gulls plus a Horned Grebe.  I saw the hybrid again.

I went home at noon to find beautiful weather.  I decided to check McKeough and Reid CA's.  I walked through the woods in areas I have not been in a long time.  I used to go there quite regularly and even more during the Breeding Bird Atlas years since it was one of my squares.
I checked an area at McKeough that we planted some uncommon native trees back in the early 1990's (cannot remember year!).  Some are still living and several have long since died.  We put up signs and many of those are still there.

The standard Eastern Phoebe was singing profusely at Duthill Bridge.

Many wildflowers are coming out in bloom now.  Certainly way ahead of normal.  Some photos here.  Common stuff:

White Trilliums are coming out too.  My photo turned out blurry.

I had lots of fun walking through the woods this afternoon.  And, not surprisingly, I came across several Spring Azures.  By far the earliest I have seen them.  The previous earliest I know of for me (but at Point Pelee) was April 2 two years ago which was a day after the record early there.

I saw azure at McKeough, then perhaps 5 at Reid.  At one point there were three fighting each other!
Very small butterflies difficult to photograph.....

At Reid, I saw a Mourning Cloak and several Eastern Comma.  One comma was freshly emerged as it was still glistening.

Also had a couple of Green Darners at Reid.
I guess the most interesting sighting of the day at Reid was a Paul Carter.  LOL.