Mid June
Nearly Summer on the calendar, certainly summer looking at the temperatures.
And we're rolling with Odonata observations. Now over 15,000 for the 2024 season. Over 600 research grade contributors. This highlights a good effort by our naturalist community.
We are at 115 species - not bad. Surprising numbers on some of the Clubtails. Splendid, Handssome, Cobra, Dusky, Plains, and Rusty Snaketails are all having really good seasons.
Early fliers that we have missed so far are Marsh Bluet, Chalk-fronted Corporal, Boreal Bluet, Northern Spreadwing, Frosted Whiteface, American Emerald, and Riffle Snaketail - no surprises here as these are never reported in big numbers, and several seem to be on the decline. We had a few Four-spotted Skimmer that survived the Ohio summer (2023) and winter. We were hoping for more, but nice to have a few.
37 species have new county records in 40 counties, for a running total of 61 new county records. This is a good number, behind the glory years of 2018-2019, but the low-hanging fruit is mostly gone! Leaders are Spatterdock Darner and Variegated Meadowhawk, both with 4 new counties. Lawrence, Medina, Mercer, and Seneca all have 3 new species.
The early season (warm weather) has produced 40+ new early flight dates. I'll have to start looking at late flight dates as we transition to departures.
It's also time to start the "County Complete" reporting. I was surprised to see that Eastern Forktail only needs 2024 observations in Adams, Brown, Trumbull, and Washington to have records in all 88 Ohio Counties. Fragile Forktail and Common Whitetail are next in line. Fragile Forktail is the current leader in number of observations, followed closely by Eastern Forktail, then a gap to Common Whitetail. Blue Dasher and Eastern Pondhawk are gaining as we get into the heart of their flight.
May 31, 2024 is now our top day of observations - ever! 730 research grade observations have been entered to the project for that day, representing 63 species from 60 observers. This edges out July 14, 2023 (727, 56, 62). Pretty amazing, and maybe more to come.
We now have June observations in all counties except Belmont, Huron, Monroe, Noble, and Washington. (note - we now have Huron observations). These are also some of the low counties for the year. Maybe we can fix some of that with the upcoming DSA meeting in Marietta - I hope to see you there!
Comments
Thanks for the update, Jim.
I'm confused on your comment. " We had a few Four-spotted Skimmer that survived the Ohio summer (2023) and winter."
Not sure what you mean.
Hi Rick, we had a number of sites where mating/ovipositing was noted - producing 2023 larvae. Hoping that we would see these as local emergence this year. It seems most of these sites have not had (yet in 2024) observations.
Ah, you were referring to nymphs. I read somewhere that this species spends 2 years in the nymph stage. Do you know if that's correct?
Wikipedia says 2 year cycle for L quadrimaculata in Europe.
We now have Riffle Snaketail - thanks dhochadel
What are the top 8-10 Odonata most likely to see 88 counties in any year?
Here's my list: Eastern Pondhawk, Blue Dasher,Eastern Forktail, Fragile Forktail, Common Whitetail, Widow Skimmer, Eastern Amberwing and Orange Bluet...maybe Variable Dancer...then going into fall add Autumn Meadowhawk?
The list of odonata in all 88 counties is larger than this including Black Saddlebags, Prince Baskettail and Common Green Darner, but can be trickier to document due to their flying patterns.
There are more, but again due to habitat, flying dates etc. the longer list can be more difficult to complete including Ebony Jewelwing, Blue-fronted Dancer and Familiar & Double Striped Bluet.
I find that keeping these in mind as I wander though the counties gives me "Yes!" goals and some of the rarer species are "Oh migosh!" moments.
Does any else have strategies they could share?
You can see species distribution maps at https://www.ohioodonatasociety.org/distribution-maps
Starting in 2018, I tracked what I called “County Complete” - meaning things seen in all 88 counties in a year. The first was Blue Dasher. After CoVid, we have had 7 species in multiple years - Blue Dasher, Common Whitetail, Eastern Amberwing, Eastern Forktail, Eastern Pondhawk, Fragile Forktail, Widow Skimmer.
Others that have been seen in all 88 counties, but not yet in a single year include Autumn Meadowhawk, Black Saddlebags, Blue-fronted Dancer, Common Green Darner, Double-striped Bluet, Ebony Jewelwing, Familiar Bluet, Orange Bluet, Prince Baskettail, Skimming Bluet, Slender Spreadwing, Stream Bluet, and Violet Dancer.
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