A change in the weather, so an update.

2023 is now the year with the most research grade observations (over 35,750 on Oct 6). This is right at 200 more than 2022, the previous top year. While numbers are diminishing, we will likely be over 36,000 for the year. As the season winds down, please submit you photos asap.

We are stalled at 135 species for 2023. There may still be something that gets blown in, so keep an eye out for Darners and Saddlebags.

Franklin and Ashtabula Counties continue as most reported (3,000+), well ahead of #3 Lucas Co (1,800+) Paulding, Wood, Allen, and Defiance are below 100.

Montgomery County has the most species (76). Huron and Ottawa have the fewest (23).

Franklin, Cuyahoga, and Summit Counties all have more than 100 observers reporting. Paulding and Auglaize have just a single observer.

Forktails (Eastern and Fragile) are now the top 2 species, a switch from the recent years dominated by Eastern Pondhawk and Blue Dasher. Nine species have more than 1,000 records and Familiar Bluet may reach 1,000 as well. 16 species have 5 or fewer records, 7 species with only single records.

Cooler days, almost cold compared to recent weather. There will still be days to observe, but there's enough data to look at. Here are the County numbers.

the # is where 2023 is above 5 year average
the + is where 2023 is new high value
[brackets indicate top value]

Here are the current 2023 species numbers.

the # is where 2023 is above 5 year average
the + is where 2023 is new high value
[brackets indicate top value]

We are still slowly accumulating additional observations. The past week (mid-Oct) for Ohio Odonata has not been the best - cold and cloudy for much of the state. Most of the new submissions have been for earlier in the year. The coming week looks to be a little warmer and maybe some sunshine - don't stop now!

Oct 2023 is above the 5-year average on observations, but still about 300 observations behind 2022. With our current numbers, if we can get the 5-year average for Nov (134), we will finish the year with over 37,000 new research grade records for the Ohio Odonata Society database. This is 10,000 more than the 5-year average.

We've looked at County and Species data (see previous journal entries). The numbers have gone up a bit.

The observation count for 63 counties is now above the 5-year average. 20 counties have had an all time high number observations. 52 counties had more species recorded than the 5-year average. 12 counties recorded an all time high number of species. So far, we have 130 new County Records. 7 species were observed in all 88 counties, 4 other species had more than 80 counties.

We have 135 species for the year. This is down compared to recent years. We did however have an amazing 96 species that had more observations than the 5-year average. Equally impressive, 55 species set new all time high numbers.

So far, 1,008 observers have contributed research grade observations.

Nicely done. These numbers speak well to our efforts of getting out.