It's truly spring

For no reason I can think of I had a puny day today. Didn't get anything done except start on my March butterfly list. Right off the bat I saw my first Henry's Elfin for the year. And even though Mexican Redbud is its host plant, I didn't see it at the redbud.

Besides lots of butterflies, I saw my first damselflies for the year. I think this is a teneral (immature) Familiar Bluet.

A most curious thing happened today. I saw a flower, OK, weed, that looked like a dandelion, but wasn't. So I thought I'd take a photo of it to get it ID'd. 

When I downloaded my picture a short time later I saw that hardly any of the leaves were in the frame, which sometimes makes IDs difficult, so decided, no problem, I'd run outside and shoot it again. Except when I got there it had magically transformed. I finally figured out that the yellow flower had closed and the bud just above it had opened as a white seed head, or whatever it's called. Pretty cool! Common Sow Thistle (Sonchus oleraceus)

Incidentally, I had Ash-throated Flycatchers at CMO two weeks earlier than I had documented them here before.