Time for the weekly swarm update!  Dragonfly swarms were reported from the following locations last week:

USA:

Villa Park, CA
Vista, CA
Clearwater, FL
Harbour Beach, FL
Highland Beach, FL
Jacksonville, FL
Riviera Beach, FL
Charleston, IL
Maple Park, IL
Groton, MA
Nesbit, MS
Gilford, NH
Meredith, NH
Parrot Shell, TX

And this is the map for the week:

While the majority of the week’s swarms occurred near the coastlines or along the Great Lakes as they have over the last few weeks, there were finally a handful of reports of swarms further inland, including one migratory movement in Texas.  However, all but one of the swarms were sighted near coastlines or along rivers.  The appearance of swarms near oceans, large lakes, or major rivers seems to be the general trend so far this year.  There have been very few swarms in areas without significant bodies of water nearby so far this year.

I’ve heard rumblings on various dragonfly listservs and Facebook pages I follow that the green darners have just recently begun to appear at many bodies of water in the country.  That is certainly the case here!  I saw my first green darner in two months a few days ago, and only my second wandering glider.  Up until Saturday, however, there were more comet darners at the pond I monitor than green darners, and that’s not normal.  It’s actually a bit of a relief to hear that people around the country are starting to see more of the green darners around as it means we might still get some of them here too!  Perhaps they’ve just been slow to emerge this year?  We have had very odd weather in many areas this year, so it’s possible that the dragonflies have been delayed.  Or perhaps the migratory darners haven’t even moved north yet?  More than half of the swarms reported this week were near coasts in the very southern parts of the US, and I got almost no reports before June this year.  It’s been an odd year, so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out!

That’s it for this week!  As always, I welcome any and all reports of dragonfly swarms, so keep sending them in!

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Have you seen a dragonfly swarm? I am tracking swarms so I can learn more about this interesting behavior.  If you see one, I’d love to hear from you!  Please visit my Report a Dragonfly Swarm page to fill out the official report form.  It only takes a few minutes! Thanks!

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Want more information? Visit my dragonfly swarm information page for my entire collection of posts about dragonfly swarms!

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