Species Data reported for 2022

County data reported for 2022

We looked earlier (Dec 31) on last years data and how 2022 has more observations than any year in the Ohio Odonata Society database. This is a nice thing to reflect on a bit. But, what's the impact? We know the top counties continue to do well. What about our target counties?

Early in the 2022 year, I put together a map of 2022 targets (see the Mar 22 blog), this followed similar reviews in 2020 and 2021. Target counties have some combination of low numbers in total observations, recent species recorded, etc. This is shown (above map) for the state by county, with darker shading indicating greater need relative to other counties in our data. 23 counties were prioritized, with special focus on Henry, Seneca, Belmont, Noble, and Meigs.

Now that the season is complete, this map has been amended to show this years trends. Counties that have the up-arrow had a 10+ percent increase in observations over the survey average (2017-2021). Counties with the down-arrow failed to get within 10 percent of the survey average. The middle ground being those counties where observations were fairly level with survey years, these counties have the long-dash.

We have 59 counties with increases in observations, 14 level, 15 with decreases. No surprises with that since 2022 was a record year for observations. The target counties (green) follow the same trends. 16 target counties had increases in 2021 observations, 2 target counties were basically level with previous survey years, 5 target counties had decreases relative to survey. It seems like we did pretty good, the weaker performance was in the NW (where I usually try to target!)

A couple additional data points are included. The block o indicates those counties where we have new high annual total of observations. The block s indicates those counties where we have a new high number of species recorded in a year. As expected, it was easier to get observations than increase the species count, but we did pretty good. Every county now has at least 600 observations, so this measure will require a new target. Every County now has at least 50 species recorded, but we still have 17 counties below the target of 60 species. We did get 3 counties moved up a level - Preble (61), Harrison (62), and Lawrence (60).

This looks like progress. There will be a new set of target counties - on to 2023.

2022 Flight Range Expansion

One of the things we keep track of is the range of days that a species is seen in Ohio. We call this the flight range, this helps know when we should expect to start (or stop) looking for a species. By keeping track, when can also have some insight to on-going changes. We had 22 changes to our species flight range in 2022. 13 new early flight dates, 9 new late flight dates. Interesting to me is the two instances (Dragonhunter and Rubyspot) where we had same day observations at different ends of the state.

2022 New County Records

Another bit that we track is the first report of a species in a county. We call that a County Record. This is a one time event. Finding a new County Record at this point is challenging and seems to get more difficult as the years go by. For 2022, we had 128 new County Records. This compares favorably to 2020 (115) and 2021 (112), but trails 2018 (330) and 2019 (321). The peak year was 1959 (405, primarily by R Alrutz).

2022 Top Observers

Here is a subjective list of the top 25 contributors to the Ohio Dragonfly Survey project for 2022. We appreciate all the contributions and effort that goes into this project, but wanted to recognize individual efforts that are significant based on iNat submissions. Each name listed represents many hours of work/play. The sort is a combination of observations and species.

For some context.

This group averages out to over 1,000 observations for the year; an average of nearly 65 species observed; and nearly 75 days in the field. This covers over 75% of the records for the year, and all but 1 of the species (Little Blue Dragonlet). Every day represented in the 2022 data includes submission from several of these observers.

The 4,144 monicap273 observations are the most ever for a single season, far ahead of #2 (jimlem 3,725 in 2019). Impressive effort for monicap273. Almost 60 research grade observations for every day monicap273 was in the field.

36 counties for (again) monicap273 represents lots of road time. This comes in at #10 all time. The most counties visited in a season was dmcshaffrey in 2019 with total of 72 counties.

Days in the field had roamingthewoods at the top with 145. Another impressive effort. Incredibly enough, 145 is behind previous top numbers, all by roamingthewoods - 150 days in 2021, 148 in 2020. (This may represent virtually every day there was sunshine in Ashtabula County.)

108 species observed is the 4th year over 100 for jimlem: 103 in 2019; 114 in 2020; 112 in 2021; 108 in 2022. Maybe I can make it 5 in 2023.

smwhite had the greatest observation span: Mar 6 to Nov 9. Best ever!

jcefus had the most species (71) in a county (Stark). This ties the high mark set by ricknirschl (Lucas) in 2019.

quddy had the most species (30) reported on a single day (6/28). This is just behind 7 jimlem days in 2019-2021 that had 31 or 32 species.

Survey Observations by Month 2017-2022

Here's a chart of total observations by month for years starting in 2017 (as new statewide survey). The 2019 months of Jul, Aug, and Sep are the highs. The 2021 months of Mar, Apr, and Nov are the highs. 2022 established new highs for May, Jun, and Oct. Note that these number are much higher than any years prior to 2017.

Other than Mar, all the 2022 months were above the 5 year averages. Jun and Jul are peak months.

Survey Trends

Here's a chart, once again, on the years starting with 2017. These are metrics related to observations vetted to species. 2022 looks pretty good. Once you hit 88 Counties for a year, it's done! Note that for scaling purposes, the Observation count is divided by 100 (peak over 35,000), User count is divided by 10 (peak over 1,000). #Days is the number of unique days observations were submitted.

Trend is up (over 5 year average) on Observations. 2022 was above the average on Users (1,036), but below the 2020 peak (1,164). Trends are basically even on species, counties, days. We are holding around 135-140 species/year - the first 90 are easy - getting over 140 takes work and luck. 2021 had warm Apr and good days in Nov through the 20th - providing 18 more days with observations than 2022.

2022 Metrics by County

Mar 3 to Nov 10, as of Jan 16, 2023

The "New High" column highlights those values where 2022 is now the top: o for # of observations, s for # of species, u for # of users, and d # of days

Note that Stark, Jefferson, and Morrow set new highs for all of these metrics.

2022 Metrics by Species

Mar 3 to Nov 10, as of Jan 16, 2023

"New High" highlights those values where 2022 is now the top # of observations, # of counties, # of users, and # of days

Note that Cyrano Darner, Familiar Bluet, Ocellated Darner, Painted Skimmer, and Sedge Sprite set new highs for all of these metrics. Note also that Painted Skimmer had 7 new County Records.

5 Year Ave on Observations and Species

Chart showing relative connection of the number of observations and distinct species. This chart is based on 5 year (2018-2022) averages for all of Ohio at 10 day increments through the Ohio Odonata flight season. You don't get species without observations, both have high numbers late-May to early-July.

Note the two scales, Species on left, Observation on right. Scaling is not perfect, but close. Species max peaks a little earlier than Observations. Species numbers stay a little higher relative to Observations as the season starts to wind down in late September.

More on Observations and Species

The January 16 chart generated some questions. It might be useful to look a little wider range. But how to divide things into useful numbers? What are appropriate time frames? Where to start? After some fiddling I came up with some breaks in the data that fit on the same charts. While not equal, hopefully useful.

The time frames are 1) everything prior to 1960, this covers 80 years and would include the survey efforts in the late 1950's; 2) everything in the years 1960-1999, this covers 40 years and the first statewide survey of the 1990's; 3) everything from the years 2000-2009, basically the quiet 10 years while our iNat data is still limited; 4) everything in the year 2010-2019, this covers 10 years and the bulk of the official statewide survey; and 5) the last 3 years.

Two charts, first on total observations per month across our 5 time spans, then distinct species per month, again across the 5 time spans.

The observation data is a stacked area chart. Remember these are total values for period with a starting representation of 80 years, ending with the most recent 3 years. Compelling evidence that we're doing well on overall observations.

The species data is a simple bar chart. These are the distinct species recorded during months across each period.

In all cases we see activity beginning in March, ramping quickly in late May to peak in Jun, then taper off steadily after July.

It's interesting that our species totals track fairly consistently. Even the period with the fewest observations (the thin green slice) was not far off the other periods. The biggest discrepancy in species numbers is October, perhaps it's just we're out more late in the season in recent years.

Given that we're only seeing (in recent years) about 80% of the documented species, I thought there would be months where the first 2 year spans would have the most species. Not seeing that. Only July has a peak species value for a period before 2000. If there is loss of some species, diversity expression is supplemented by the arrival/discovery of new species.

A couple other random things that turned up as I was thinking about all this:

iNat observations begin to dominate annual numbers in the OOS db starting in 2005. These are all relatively recent additions - this project didn't start until 2017. iNat observations now account for over 80% of the OOS data.

Widow Skimmer was the first species recorded in all 88 counties - that happened in 1991. 22 other species now have records from all 88 counties.

Blue Dasher was the first species recorded in all 88 counties in a year, 2018. 6 other species now have that distinction (Common Whitetail, Eastern Amberwing, Eastern Forktail, Eastern Pondhawk, Fragile Forktail, Widow Skimmer).

Hardin Co was the last county to enter the data set. 3 species were collected on Aug 8, 1958. Several others were added on Aug 9. Hardin Co will be one of the target counties for 2023.

Charting All the Data by Day

Here's a couple charts updated with the 2022 additions. Compare previous in the Feb 10 Journal.

First the total observations

This looks similar to last year, just with an adjusted scale (increase).

Jun 24 now busiest day with 2,401 observations, up by nearly 500 from last year's high of 1,921 on Jun 23.

The span of days with over 1,000 observations per day has expanded, now May 29 to Aug 15 (79 days). Last year's range was Jun 11 to Jul 20 (40 days).

Now the Species by Day

This chart is very similar to a year ago, you have to look pretty close to find differences.

The Species top day is Jun 23 with 113, followed closely by Jun 14 with 112, and Jun 15 with 111.

Jun dominates with 23 days over 100 species. We did add to the previous total, where a year ago Jun had 15 days with 100 or more species. Jul is the only other month with 100 species days at 3.