Mid-August Update

A day after a Yellow-jacket encounter (and meds), I'm taking a day to look at data for the 2021 season so far.

In 2018 we had one species (Blue Dasher) that was observed in all 88 Ohio Counties. We improved on that in 2019 with 7 species that were observed in all Counties. Blue Dasher had the most Counties in 2020 with 81. So, where are we in 2021? We have 4 species 'in the zone' to maybe get all 88. Here are the candidates: Widow Skimmer (84); Eastern Pondhawk (81); Common Whitetail (81); Blue Dasher (80).

The needed counties for Widow Skimmer are Lawrence, Seneca, Tuscarawas, and Wyandot

For Eastern Pondhawk - Columbiana, Hardin, Henry, Morrow, Scioto, Tuscarawas, Wyandot

For Common Whitetail - Carroll, Henry, Lawrence, Marion, Monroe, Putnam, Vinton

For Blue Dasher - Defiance, Lawrence, Pickaway, Putnam, Seneca, Tuscarawas, Van Wert, Wyandot

If you're in an area to get these species' observations, you'll be a shining star in our data! Notice Wyandot Co listed for 3 out of the 4.

We've had some progress with Counties on the low end of observations. The bottom 10 counties are now Meigs (23), Columbiana (20), Carroll (19), Scioto (16), Monroe (15), Tuscarawas (13), Allen (12), Lawrence (11), Morrow (11), Wyandot (8). Wyandot once again.

Four Counties have more than 1000 observations: Ashtabula (1384); Lucas (1181); Franklin (1154), and Stark (1103).

As expected, Blue Dasher (1274) has moved past Common Whitetail (1266) as the most observed species. Eastern Pondhawk (1094) is also gaining quickly.

It appears we will have over 90 new County Records, covering over 50 species, in over half the Counties. This is down a bit from last year, and alot from 2019 - but this gets harder as we move along. Getting 100 would be impressive (we had 104 in 2020). Numbers won't be specific until year end when we have all the data in iNat.

If you have specific questions, please message me.

And do be careful - it is Yellow-jacket season, and it can be hard to see the nests that are in the ground and the weeds are knee-high. Ticks have slowed a bit, but Deer-flies are still pesky, and the chiggers are miserable.

Posted on 15 de agosto de 2021, 05:21 PM by jimlem