Only a week left in the month! Weather is warm and sunny, dragonflies seem to be flying everywhere. Migration south is underway for Common Green Darners, Black Saddlebags, and Wandering Gliders. Watch 20-30 feet up as you drive or walk, predominant direction is south-westerly. Also watch for evening swarms in open meadow areas.
We have 6 species now reported in all 88 counties for 2024. These are Eastern Forktail, Common Whitetail, Eastern Pondhawk, Eastern Amberwing, Blue Dasher, and Fragile Forktail. We still need 1 county (Fayette) for Widow Skimmer.
Next in line would be Violet Dancer and Common Green Darner. While we have recent reports for these 2 species, we have never gotten them in all 88 counties in a season - so a new goal! It would be cool to add one or both of these. Here are the needed species/counties:
Violet Dancer - Brown, Clinton, Huron, Ottawa, Pickaway
Common Green Darner - Adams, Athens, Defiance, Marion, Perry, Ross, Tuscarawas, Washington
Dancer numbers will decline considerably in September - but we only need 5 more counties. Common Green Darner flight is one of the longest and they're easy to see - so this seems do-able. Even blurry photos can be good for an ID.
Our observation numbers for July and August are still behind the last couple years. As the season begins to wind down, please get any early season observations submitted.
We have had several reports on Smoky Rubyspot, so we are at 134 on the season, we still nee one more to hit the 5-year-average.
If we look at numbers by family, we are at or above 5-year-average for the season - through the month of July. As mentioned in the Aug 6 journal, there are some exceptions. At this point, the most noticeable - in the field and in the data - is Sympetrum. We know the Autumn Meadowhawk comes on strong in the fall months, but keep an eye out for this and other Meadowhawk species.
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