If a tree falls in the forest...

[which_chick]

We're back at the Boots on the Ground problem for science. I've been on this before that species are not being observed and that our distribution and prevalence maps for stuff kind of suck. (No harm no foul to scientists out there doing the good work -- they can't be everywhere doing everything and there simply are not enough of them to cover the world in an odonate-centric sort of way.) And places like iNaturalist and odonatacentral.com try pretty hard to improve the record and produce up-to-date distribution maps. iNaturalist is citizen-verified, OC is verified by selected experts but both sites require a voucher specimen (typically a photograph) to prove that you saw what you say you saw.

I guess it's possible that some yahoo might submit photographs that aren't really stuff they actually saw but it takes a special kind of stupid to want to pretend to find odonates. I don't think people are actually doing that.



So today I had a lovely day out in the swamp below the dam, looking for odes.

I saw a bunch of stuff some of which I've already shown you pictures of (Great Blue Skimmer, Brown Spiketail) and I'm not sure we need to see more pictures of the same dragonflies. (And yet I took those pictures. I did not submit them to OC because they are so close to the other site, like half a mile or three quarters of a mile away, and I don't want to overwhelm the site specimen vetters.) GBS's were out in force, four or five males defending territory, perching, looking awesome. They really are quite striking dragonflies. Brown Spiketails like similarly swampy habitat and, as I found them together up past Kutz's in the ex-beaverpond-swamp, I found them together down below the dam. They seem to ignore one another.

But I'd seen them already for this year and didn't need them for OC.org or iNaturalist, so I was kind of *meh* about that -- didn't need to net or photograph them. I also saw a pair of Didymops transversa in wheel, but we've done Didymops for the year, too.

And there were some Lancet Clubtails about doing Lancet Clubtail things. Not super exciting. I still felt, this morning, that there was (in the Valley) another damn dull clubtail that was NOT a Lancet Clubtail and NOT a Dusky Clubtail. And here it is, the Ashy Clubtail. Ashy Clubtails like swampy bits. Look for them in swamps.



Compare him to Dusky Clubtail.



They kinda look the same, don't they?

Ashy (I did not do that to his wing, he was like that when I netted him. Also he could still fly pretty darned well, which shocked me.):


Dusky:


There's a tiny bit more yellow on this Ashy (top view) than on this Dusky, but color is not always definitive. What IS definitive is if you take very detailed pictures of their appendages, the Dusky has a toothed bit and the Ashy has a not-toothed bit. (I have these pictures, which are not easy to take, and I will eventually write them up as yet another odonate post that nobody is interested in but me.)

So I get that this is not entirely exciting for normal humans. These are pretty darned similar clubtails and they're not especially flashy. Got it. But there was other stuff, too.

I found a Swamp Darner (Epiaeschna heros), a new species for me to see in person.



and side view:



These are (as you can see from the handheld shot) a pretty good-sized dragonfly. Not small. They appear to be "brightly colored" but that's not... no. They are not entirely easy to spot in their actual habitat. They are in swampy places, in the shade, where the dark color blends with the water and the bright green looks like sedges.

So that was fun, but it started to look like it might thunderstorm, so I started for home in a less-than-urgent way. (I have been wet before. I will be wet again. It's not any cause to hustle.) Stopped off at the hill between Dad's and Tar Kiln Run to see if there was any action at the seep thing there. And that's where I picked up a Gray Petaltail.



She ran into me and then perched on the powerline pole. I subsequently netted her for pictures (and then released her).



Also on the powerline cut but closer to Tar Kiln Run, I saw (and netted and photographed) a Black-shouldered Spinyleg, Female. (No picture here, but trust me I have them.) But what does any of this have to do with Boots on the Ground?

A lot. I'm getting there, really I am.

I am an ammie "odonatologist" if that's a thing. Like, I am not even PRETENDING to be a pro about this. But I have no fear of the swampy bits and I have a net and a camera and some weekends to devote to the cause.

Great Blue Skimmer, Libellula vibrans. How hard is it to see in Pennsylvania? I would like to note for the record here that I live very close to the Bedford/Fulton county line, in the bottom-center of the map of Pennsylvania. The records you see there? They are mine.

iNaturalist, red dots are records.



odonatacentral, green dots are "current" and blue dots are "historical record" from the Dot Map Project which put a dot (blue) in each county where there was ever a verified record of observation of this species:



Swamp Darner

iNaturalist



odonatacentral



Gray Petaltail

iNat



OC



Okay, we all remember THE BEE GRAPHIC, right? The one where ... oh nevermind, it's this one:



More bees were found where more people are interested in looking at bees.

Are broad swaths of Pennsylvania bereft of interesting odes? I don't think so.

Is my habitat Super Special and Unspoiled and Amazing? It'd be pretty to think so and I am of course quite attached to it myself, but given that it's at-best second or third growth ratty PA mountainside with a fair amount of swampy bits and a shallow man-made impoundment from the 1960's... probably not all that special.

Are broad swaths of Pennsylvania bereft of PEOPLE INTERESTED IN LOOKING AT ODES?

Winner, winner, Chicken Dinner.