Yes! It’s possible to see Odonata in March. Maybe not right away, but I saw my first Red-winged Blackbird about 10 days ago, and many Killdeer yesterday, so I’m hopeful that I'll survive the winter and find a dragonfly soon.

Here’s a map of Counties with observations in March. Darker where observations are in the last 5 years. Montgomery and Coshocton have one or two more than the other counties. Notice counties with observations – north to south, east to west. If your county isn’t purple, here’s your chance.

Counties with observations in March. Darker where observations are in the last 5 years. Montgomery and Coshocton have one or two more than the other counties.

Many of our earliest sightings are individuals that are migrating on the spring stormfronts. They can drop out of the sky at any wetland, or maybe your backyard.

In early 2017, at the start of the statewide Survey, MaLisa had a blog entry that highlighted counties that were low on observations and species recorded (https://u.osu.edu/ohioodonatasurvey/2017/05/). Her criteria were counties with fewer than 300 observations and counties with fewer than 40 species recorded. Five years later, I'm happy to report that we no longer have -any- counties below those threshholds.

Updating MaLisa's maps (created in R using packages ggmap, mapdata, and dplyr by MaLisa Spring) look like this: Originals on the left (blue = less than original threshhold), Updates for 2022 to original criteria on the right.

Here is the original 2017 observations map (left) and the 2022 update (right). Blue counties had fewer than 300 observations. Now all gray!

Here is the original 2017 species map (left) and the 2022 update (right). Blue counties had fewer than 40 species. Now all gray!

You can see that we passed all the original thresholds. In fact, we can double the observation requirement (+300) and increase the species by 50% (+20) to have similar county lists.

Ohio Counties color coded for Observations. Blue counties are currently in the range of 324-594 observations (<600). Gray counties have observations in the range of 605-9,340.

Ohio Counties color coded for Species. Blue counties are currently in the range of 50-59 species (< 60). Gray counties have species in the range of 60-117.

I had a couple reports from Saturday that something seen flying might have been a dragonfly. OK, good. Then on Sunday, smwhite got a couple photos! See https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108058570 Nicely done!

This observation sets a new early flight date for Common Green Darner (Anax junius), but it is now also our earliest flight date for any Odonate in the wild (not greenhouse).

Warm temps and a strong south wind brought us these dragons - and probably some others as well. Not sure how they will fair with the change in the weather. But the 2022 season is now officially underway.

Many of you know about the Ohio Odonata Society and our monthly newsletter (Ohio Dragon Flyer). The March issue was sent out last week, and there were one or more technical issues. If you did not get the newsletter, please let me know. Also, if you would like to be added to the distribution list, send me your email and you will be added.

Two journal posts back we looked at Survey goals and targets, both original (2021) and revised (now).

How much work is involved in achieving the revised goals? Well, that depends...

Here are the 28 counties that are below our goals in terms of either number of observations or number of species. The numbers are how many observations or species are needed. Any empty spot means already above goal.

Some of these will be easy, some less so.

Confidence is higher in bumping up the county observation numbers than finding new county species. If you think about a reasonable wetland in June or July, you should be able to document 15 observations. A reasonable day is 3 sites. So around 1 person/day for 50 records. We have 5 counties that can get to the observation goal in a day. Worst case scenario (242 needed for Belmont Co) will probably require 5-7 days for one observer, or 1 day each from 7 observers, or something in between. Very do-able, may need a little coordination. Basically getting people in the field in these counties should do the trick.

Picking up new species requires more than boots in the mud. We'll need strategy. Example: Seneca Co. We need 10 species to get to 60. If we look at the data on species not yet recorded in Seneca in relation to the surrounding area we can zero in on potential target. Local means a county that shares a border with the target.

Running the data, with some slight edits, we get this list of species:

In this case, every county around Seneca has 3 species not found in Seneca, all but 1 have another 3 species, etc. Altogether, there are 17 species with a relatively high likelihood of being in Seneca Co. Then it's a matter of matching habitat (see your favorite field guide) and flight period (see the OOS flight charts). Easy-peasy? Probably not, but worth a try.

News from MaLisa Spring -

After 2 years of pandemic delays, the Ohio Odonata Society plans to host a small conference this summer on Saturday, June 25th at the Education Center at Possum Creek Metro Park in Dayton, Ohio.

Watch for registration details and conference information at:

https://u.osu.edu/ohioodonatasurvey/2022/03/28/save-the-date-2022-ohio-dragonfly-conference-saturday-june-25th-in-dayton-ohio/