For several years, the Wells Reserve has participated in the Maine Dragonfly and Damselfly Survey, a project initiated by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Sue Smith Bickford, our main odonate enthusiast, was away for most of the 2005 flight season, but today shipped off 14 specimens for identification. They will be inspected and entered into the MDDS database to go with well over 100 other samples taken in the Reserve's salt marshes.

Results from the first several years of statewide odonate sampling have improved biologists' knowledge of the distribution and flight periods of dragonflies and damselflies in Maine. And Sue has contributed at least one notable record: the first Citrine Forktail documented in the state since 1958.