Friday, June 19, 2009

The Spatterdock Darner Lives in Southern Ohio Too

Singer Lake Bog, 2006. This vegetation filled water basin can be treacherous. The sort of olive green, round shaped leaves with an upward pointing tip are those of spatterdock

Great day of botanizing at Singer Lake Bog yesterday, but no pictures. Just not a place I was willing to take the camera. A quaking wet bog mat just begs to suck cameras right in. Although, today I met Greg, a museum staff member that is currently making a short film of Singer Lake. He brought his video camera, all $15,000 dollars worth of it. I held my breath. It stayed dry.

Spatterdock darner, Lawrence County, Ohio, photo by Rick Gardner.

We were able to see interesting dragonflies, including the elfin skimmer, a state endangered species. But one dragonfly that we didn't see was the spatterdock darner, even though there is plenty of spatterdock, an emergent yellow flowerd water-lily type plant, in the bog. My co-worker Rick Gardner photographed did find a spatterdock darner, however, while botanizing the Wayne National Forest in Lawrence County, way down in southern Ohio. Rick is not only one of the best botanists in the state, but he also has his camera at the ready if an interesting animal cuts across his gaze between his eyes and the plant that he is scrutinizing. In case you missed them, also check out his images of a thirteen-lined ground squirrel.

What's even cooler about Rick's find is that the spatterdock darner, at least according to the somewhat outdated range map on the Ohio Odonata Society's website, is not only a county record, but a regional record, having never been documented for any county south of Franklin (the county from which I write this blog). Check out this map. Lawrence is the southernmost county in Ohio. Great find, Rick.

Tom

8 comments:

  1. That is a beautiful dragonfly! I see the same 5-6 different kinds and can't seem to find any new ones.

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  2. I love that cyan blue color he has!

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  3. Thanks Everyone. Rick did a great job with this one.

    Mary- Try checking out new habitats- bogs, fens, high quality swamps, woodland streams, rivers for new damselflies, etc.

    Chris- Isn't it beautiful? The color is amazingly intense, almost artificial!

    Tom

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  4. I love the dragonfly. What a beautiful color.

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  5. tereinsouthernohio7/02/2011 03:43:00 PM

    Your picture is beautiful, I love the color. I also enjoy getting pics on and around our large pond of the mystical dancing insects. I brag on my collection like they are grandchildren. Great site!

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