February Update

Ground Hog Day! While I appreciate today's bright sunshine, the shadow is a bit of a disappointment for an early spring. Based on the near-term forecast, it appears we are in for some more winter weather. I'm sore from shoveling the weekend's heavy snow - but based on the data, we're only 50 or so days until the first Darners arrive! So, that's a look on the bright side.

The Dragonfly Survey Project submissions that arrived before the end of 2020 are now integrated into the Ohio Odonata Society database. The 2020 results will be past of the February newsletter.

A couple things stand out.

1) The Project continues to be a success even though the official Survey has come to an end (20,000+ observations by nearly 1300 different observers).

2) We still have work to do (20 counties had fewer than 25 observations on the year). One county had only a single observation - but it was a new County Record.

Another important point is the number of counties where a small number of observers (in many cases just one person) made a huge difference in the number of observations for a county. Season long weekly or biweekly data from a single site can be useful in tracking species and overall numbers. You can make a difference to citizen-science.

A couple of the most unique observations for 2020 were Skillet Clubtail (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/49790076) and Brush-tipped Emerald (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51945408). It had been a while since the last observation for both of these species (1994, and 2006). Slender Baskettail and Smoky Shadowdragon were also observed - continuing the consistent but low observations for these rare Ohio species.

Species maps and flight charts have been updated - hopefully soon accessible.

Posted on February 2, 2021 07:37 PM by