Filling the Void: Recent gains in knowledge of OdonateS in New Hampshire

Tom Young

New Hampshire Odonate Club

Abstract:

Until recently, New Hampshire has been somewhat of a void in terms of data on odonate distributions; now, however, that is emphatically no longer the case. A small but growing group of keen and determined observers is now combing the state, nets and digital cameras in hand, greatly adding to our knowledge of ode distribution. There is now a New Hampshire e-mail listserv devoted to odes, as well as a statewide Odonate club. The last comprehensive assessment of New Hampshire 's Odonate fauna was in 1973, when Hal White and Wallace Morse published "Odonata of New Hampshire: An Annotated List." This document listed 134 species in the state, including 23 that were being reported for the first time. The state list now stands at 154, including 6 new species in the last 2 years. At the same time, the ranges of several other species appear to have expanded significantly since 1973. Tom Young shares what he has found in two summers of intensive surveying in just part of Hillsborough County in southern New Hampshire , as a way of showing what a similar effort might--and will--yield statewide.

Biography: Tom Young has been a birdwatcher for 20 years. He worked as a summer naturalist for Massachusetts Audubon on Martha's Vineyard in 1993 and is an experienced bird field trip leader. He is a past president of the Essex County Ornithological Club, current president of Nashaway Chapter of New Hampshire Audubon, and assisted Don and Lillian Stokes in the production of several of their Beginner's Guides to birds, most recently the Stokes Field Guide to Warblers. Tom is relatively new to odes, having taken them up as photographic subjects in the summer of 2002. In 2003, he formed the New Hampshire Odonate Club. Tom resides in Merrimack , NH , with his wife and daughter aged 4, and is Manager of his wife's medical practice (Emerald Hill Medical Associates), which is named for a dragonfly! He has a website at: http://homepage.mac.com/nhodes