期刊歸檔用於 2023年3月

2023年03月01日

Mar 1 - Common Green Darner Month

Now March. It’s possible to see Odonata in March - mostly Common Green Darner. Maybe not right away, but soon. Last year, the flight season set a new early date, by starting on March 6. We've already had some nymph observations for 2023.

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 to get in data!

Species Earliest
Flight Date
Observations
All Data
Observations
Recent Years
Migratory?
Variegated Meadowhawk
Sympetrum corruptum
12-Mar 4 1 Yes
Fragile Forktail
Ischnura posita
20-Mar 2 No
Common Green Darner
Anax junius
6-Mar 24 22 Yes
Swamp Darner
Epiaeschna heros
29-Mar 1 1 Maybe

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.

由使用者 jimlem jimlem2023年03月01日 15:51 所貼文 | 2 評論 | 留下評論

2023年03月05日

Mar 05 - Are You Ready for Some Dragons?

Several Common Green Darners arrived in Greene Co on Mar 6, 2022 marking the earliest Ohio Odonata observations last year. iNaturalist now has reports of adult Dragonflies in Georgia and Alabama. So it won't be long until our 2023 season starts.

Below is a chart of species ranked by early date of adult Odonata observation (Ohio Odonata Society database). 10 or 11 day segments are then charted by span (color band - first to last) and occurrence within the span (noted by asterisk). Where there is a gap in the span, there is no asterisk. The coloration is related to Odonata groups: Darner is red, Skimmer is purple, etc).

This is a reduced version of the whole chart, which has all 173 species and some additional datapoints. A PDF version can be emailed if you are interested - message me with your preferred email address (if I don't have it already).

由使用者 jimlem jimlem2023年03月05日 16:09 所貼文 | 0 評論 | 留下評論

2023年03月14日

3.14 - Pi Day

Ohio Odonata Data

It has come to my attention that some Ohio Odonata observations in iNaturalist were not in the Ohio Dragonfly Survey project. After some sleuthing and further follow-up there are several instances where observations are not picked up, as follows.

1) When observers are not adding their observations to the project - this happens, and while not optimal, we generally pick things up by using the iNat Curator tool "Find Suitable Observations." But! It seems that there are some exceptions to our processing.

2) Initial wrong ID - an observation gets submitted and the observer isn't sure on the ID or makes the wrong ID. Example, they type in something like "Azure Bluet" and iNat cheerfully plugs in the first Azure Bluet on it's list, Houstonia caerulea - which is a flower, rather than a bug Enallagma aspersum. This observation is located in Ohio, but isn't eligible for the survey because it's not identified as Odonata. Most of these subsequently get the correct ID, but they fall through a crack and don't make it into the survey.

3) "Private" location - it is understood that some locations need to not be made available to the wide world. But, in marking an observation as "private", it can also escape attention to the project Curators. Some my be marked Ohio, some the even more generic United States. Another crack, another fall...

4) iNat user limiting the use of their observations. Some observers prefer a measure of control over their information. Not a problem, other than unless they join the project and add their observations, the data can be locked out of inclusion in the survey. We try to get people to play along, but not always successfully. It's interesting that some of the locked observations are for people that joined the project.

5) We generally want IDs to species for inclusion in the OOS database, but there are both historical records and recent observations that are only at the generic level. This can impact observation counts. A similar situation exists on location data - not everything is located to a county. Better observations make for better data.

6) Along these same lines - we occasionally have iNat users leave the system - and their observations disappear. For better or worse, while we have captured the data and imported to the OOS database, we no longer have an original source to go back to. We treat this similar to historical data that was reported by individuals without a voucher.

What to do? Please add your observations to the project as they are entered into iNaturalist. If you have entered private location observations, please check a couple to see if they're in the project. If you have a photo of an Ode from Ohio and you can't get it to add to the project, check your ID and location - may be there's a discrepancy in your ID of the observation or where it got dropped on the map.

由使用者 jimlem jimlem2023年03月14日 20:34 所貼文 | 0 評論 | 留下評論

2023年03月22日

Mar 21 - Spring is here

OK, now officially Spring. Our first full day is complete and we're still waiting on our first adult Odonata observation.

iNaturalist now has 2023 observations as far north as Tennessee and Virginia. Nothing yet for Kentucky or West Virginia.

But it shouldn't be too much longer. I'm dreaming of seeing Common Green Darners, but (of course) missing getting a photo.

Stay tuned and keep an eye on your local wetlands.

由使用者 jimlem jimlem2023年03月22日 02:05 所貼文 | 0 評論 | 留下評論

2023年03月24日

Hold the date!

2023 Dragonfly Survey and Ohio Odonata Society (OOS) Annual Meeting

Following our successful one-day OOS meeting in 2022, we are planning another one-day meeting for 2023:

June 17, 2023
Lowe-Volk Park, 2401 OH-598, Crestline, OH 44827
Crawford County Park District

We will start early with some social time and a business meeting, followed by field trips at area wetlands!

If you are interested in attending, please send email to jlem@woh.rr.com. I will provide details as they emerge.

由使用者 jimlem jimlem2023年03月24日 21:27 所貼文 | 0 評論 | 留下評論