Cruising past the 21,000 mark for the year. Wow. 126 species, over 1,000 contributors. Challenging to keep up. Currently at 3,493 research grade observations for the last 10 days of June. This is very close to last year's high mark, and with a better species diversity.

Successful completion of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas meeting in Marietta last weekend. Good socialization, a bit exhausting. We had small but enthusiastic pre and post field trips. All good.

Given our meeting proximity in SE Ohio counties, we pushed all the needy local counties (Monroe, Noble, Belmont, Guernsey, Meigs, Morgan) past the 1,000 observation mark. Also a number of new County Records, helping boost those numbers.

The last 10 days of June are typically our high point for observations and diversity, so while observations remain high, diversity begins to decline. There are still things to see.

Our 5-year average on species/year is 135ish. We're at 126 currently. For some, we're now past - Boreal Bluet, Chalk-fronted Corporal, Northern Spreadwing. A couple others, pretty slim history - River Bluet, Rambur's Forktail. Thing seen last year, but not yet this year:

Black-tipped Darner
Elusive Clubtail
Gilded River Cruiser
Green-striped Darner
Laura's Clubtail
Shadow Darner
Smoky Rubyspot
Stygian Shadowdragon

We'll need most of these to be in the zone. Some can be expected, others will need a bit of luck. Past that, we'll be hoping for Striped Saddlebags.

The data suggests 60 species are possible in every Ohio County. Most counties that have over 60 species have over 1,000 observations. So our goal was to get enough observations to push every county to a cumulative 1,000. We started the year with 25 counties short of the 1,000 mark. We're down to 9 counties. These counties and their current totals:

Columbiana - 856
Mercer - 905
Auglaize - 917
Hardin - 918
Van Wert - 943
Highland - 951
Henry - 970
Allen - 989
Fulton - 996

You can see, 3 of these are very close. Several others probably only need a day or two. All are in range if we can get someone to spend some time in Columbiana Co.

We've down well with eastern counties and DSA meeting attendees, providing the needed observations for Noble, Belmont, Monroe, Meigs, Gallia, Morgan.

We also started the year with 16 counties short of the 60 species. With new county records, we've moved Fayette, Huron, Mercer and Putnam to 60. 12 counties still need species:

Noble - 51
Belmont - 55
Hardin - 55
Marion - 56
Allen - 57
Brown - 57
Auglaize - 57
Seneca - 57
Henry - 58
Monroe - 58
Meigs - 59
Van Wert - 59

60 species per county will likely still be a goal for 2025. Picking up 1 or 2 species seems do-able. 3 to 9 will require time and effort.

You can check the county pages on the OOS web site at https://www.ohioodonatasociety.org/county-species-lists - this has a clickable map. Click on the county you have in mind, then scroll down to see the Target Species table. The default view is sorted by species seen in nearby counties - but you can click on the headers to sort.

County Complete - once again looking for those species that we document in every county in a season. These species are numerous and have been found everywhere. In recent years we've had 7 species in every county - Blue Dasher, Eastern Forktail, Eastern Pondhawk, Fragile Forktail, Common Whitetail, Eastern Amberwing, and Widow Skimmer.

For 2024, we're really close on a couple, and getting closer on our others. Here's the species list and needed counties:

Eastern Forktail - Adams

Common Whitetail - Clinton, Putnam

Fragile Forktail - Clinton, Defiance, Marion, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky

Eastern Amberwing - Adams, Clinton, Crawford, Knox, Marion, Pike, Scioto

Blue Dasher - Clinton, Columbiana, Hancock, Knox, Marion, Putnam, Van Wert, Vinton

Eastern Pondhawk - Clinton, Columbiana, Hancock, Hardin, Huron, Knox, Marion, Putnam, Vinton

Widow Skimmer - Athens, Clinton, Columbiana, Erie, Fayette, Huron, Knox, Marion, Pike, Richland, Sandusky, Wood

Most references are for Clinton Co (6) - likely sites include stops around Cowan Lake.

Just behind is Marion Co (5) - Killdeer Plains and Big Island would be targets.

Next up would be Knox Co (4) - check Knox Lake or Apple Valley Lake sites.

Happy Hunting.

Many dragons in the air, over 1,700 observations last week from over 200 people. 76 species recorded. We're past the peak diversity of the previous week (88 species), but still pretty cool.

Even cooler is the response to the request for Columbiana Co observations - 180 observations arrived (thanks mmp133 and tuckerc). Columbiana now well over the 1,000 observation goal. Let's try this again - counties that now need the most help in observations are are Mercer, Hardin, Auglaize, and Van Wert.

There was a question related to the low species counties and what the most likely targets are. This info is on the OOS web, but more specifically for the lowest counties:

Noble - 51 - Wandering Glider, Banded Pennant, Carolina Saddlebags, Dragonhunter, Citrine Forktail, Shadow Darner

Belmont - 55 - Spangled Skimmer, Shadow Darner, Comet Darner, Dragonhunter, Stream Cruiser, Banded Pennant

Hardin - 55 - Swamp Spreadwing, Elegant Spreadwing, Swift River Cruiser, Emerald Spreadwing, Spot-winged Glider

Marion - 56 - Lancet Clubtail, Shadow Darner, Ashy Clubtail, Blue-faced Meadowhawk, Comet Darner

The number is the current documented species for the county. Almost all of these are still "in flight" or coming in. Any would be new County Records. Go get 'em!

There is progress on County Complete. This is another success - a week ago Clinton Co had the most needed species with 6 - smwhite went to Clinton and got all 6! Next in line is Marion with 5, and Knox and Putnam, both at 3. Still waiting on an Eastern Forktail in Adams. We're down to just Putnam for Common Whitetail. We should have our first County Complete real-soon-now.

Current list:

Eastern Forktail - Adams

Common Whitetail - Putnam

Fragile Forktail - Defiance, Marion, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky

Eastern Amberwing - Crawford, Marion, Pike, Scioto

Blue Dasher - Hancock, Knox, Marion, Putnam, Van Wert, Vinton

Eastern Pondhawk - Columbiana, Huron, Knox, Marion, Putnam

Widow Skimmer - Columbiana, Erie, Fayette, Knox, Marion, Pike, Sandusky

Big picture - approaching 23,000 research grade observations for the season. 128 species. These numbers are both ahead of our record-setting 2023 season. For 2023, Mar 1 - Jul 14 was 20,902/123. Species we had in 2023 that we've missed (so far) include Stygian Shadowdragon, Northern Spreadwing, Chalk-fronted Corporal, Boreal Bluet, River Bluet. We're likely past flight on these.

Black-tipped Darner, Green-striped Darner, and Smoky Rubyspot seem likely to turn up somewhere.

Still hopeful for sightings of Gilded River Cruiser, Lance-tipped Darner, Laura's Clubtail, and Striped Saddlebags. We'll need all of these and/or some rarities to match our 5-year average.

Currently we are just over at 25,000 observations and 130 species. These numbers are ahead of 2023. At this point 2023 had just under 24,000 observation and 126 species.

April and May both have new high numbers by considerable margins. We're still receiving June data, but behind 2022 and 2023. We have 10 days yet in July, and are considerably behind the last couple years for July.

Top counties include the usual - Summit, Lucas, Montgomery, Ashtabula, Franklin. On the low end are Putnam, Vinton, Paulding, Fayette, Clinton, and Wyandot - all with fewer than 50 observations.

Most reported species are Eastern Forktail, Fragile Forktail, and Common Whitetail. Eastern Forktail has now been observed in all 88 counties. Common Whitetail and Eastern Pondhawk just need observations in Putnam Co to have all 88.

So far there are 82 new county records. Comet Darner, Variegated Meadowhawk, and Emerald Spreadwing have all been documented in 5 new counties.

Special mentions on species go to tuckerc for Brush-tipped Emerald, and dhochadel for Golden-winged Skimmer. These are both rarities in recent years.

Our 5-year numbers on species/year is 135-140. We'll need at least 5 more - hopefully Black-tipped Darner, Green-striped Darner, Laura's Clubtail, Smoky Rubyspot, Striped Saddlebags.

The newest issue of the OOS Dragon Flyer newsletter is now on the web site. The link for all the available newsletters is

https://www.ohioodonatasociety.org/dragonflyer-newsletters

Warm days and lots of Odonata in flight. Good days to be dragon hunting.

We started the season with 25 counties having fewer than 1,000 observations. At this point we're down to 1! Henry County is the last. I'll see if I can fix that this weekend. We've also made progress on getting county species diversity to 60. We started with 16 counties at less than 60. That count is now 11 - and working.