Gray Petaltails have a very sporadic distribution across Ohio. Their typical habitat is either open, sunny fens like we have at Cedar Bog or semi-sunny, wet seeps in forested habitat. I believe that prior to deforestation, both these sunny seeps and the Gray Petaltail were much more widespread. Deforestation, however, resulted in a lot of the wet seeps and springs drying up, greatly reducing habitat for the Gray Petaltail. By 1940, Ohios forests had been reduced from 95% of the state to only 12 to 15% of the state. In recent years forests in Ohio have recovered to now covering about 30% of the state, but these large dragonflies have not re-inhabited many areas that might now be suitable. Gray Petaltails seem to be much slower to recover than the forest seeps they call home. Cedar Bog is one of several good places to see this species, and sometimes they even land on visitors!

If you want to learn more about dragonflies and their close relatives the damselflies, then you might want to join a group of us at the West Woods Nature Center in Geauga County on Saturday, June 21st. The annual meeting of the Ohio Odonata Society (OOS) will start at 9 a.m. in the nature center building with several short talks and a brief business meeting. After a break for lunch (bring your own no nearby facilities), well head afield to see and photograph whatever Odonata (the order of dragonflies and damselflies) we can find. Long-time members of OOS are all friendly and eager to share information with novices. Several members are authors of dragonfly books and booklets and several are excellent photographers. Famed NE Ohio nature photographer, Ian Adams, will be leading one of the morning talks on how to photograph Odes and help will be available in the field as well. Species that might be seen (never any guarantees) include Swamp Darners, Cyrano Darners, Amberwing Spreadwings and with a lot of luck Southern Pygmy Clubtails!