Dragonfly swarms, of epic scope and scale!

 An admittedly poor shot, but it shows seven or so of the thousands (probably) of common green darners, Anax junius, in a massive feeding swarm just before sunset tonight. Via Facebook and other sources, I saw reports coming in from all over Ohio of big dragonfly swarms, so I ran over to a nearby farm in Columbus, Franklin County, that has lots of meadows and open space. Sure enough, as soon as I entered through the gates, dragonflies appeared.

There's just no way to make any sort of semi-exact estimate of rapidly flying and darting insects on this epic a scale, but as dragonflies were everywhere I went on this property, and I saw hundreds and maybe a thousand+ in my very limited coverage, there were certainly thousands of dragonflies across the whole property, I'd say.

Every dragonfly I could clap eyes on well enough to identify was a common green darner (this shot of a male in flight from several years ago). From other reports of today, this seems to be the primary species involved in the massive migration. Other species, such as gliders and saddlebags, can intermix with these swarms, though.

I've written about these swarms before, such as HERE, HERE, and HERE. Many people made comments on those posts, reporting additional swarms. If you saw such a swarm today or recently, or in the days to come, please leave a comment. Be sure to note at a bare minimum, the county, state if not Ohio, and a rough guess at how many dragonflies were present. If you know dragonfly identification and can say what species were involved, all the better.