The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé track and field team will take to the oval at Dimond High School for the 2025 ASAA/First National Bank Alaska Track & Field State Championships May 30-31.
“As we prepare for the state competition, we will maintain our routine practices,” JDHS co-head coach Jesse Stringer said. “Today, I spoke with the team about the importance of sticking to our routines while on the road. Whether it’s sleeping on gym floors or eating from Safeway grocery stores, we will continue with what we’ve been doing all season.
“Looking ahead, we just need to get past the big region
championship and graduation weekend, rest up, and stay consistent. Repetition and consistency have brought us this far and will lead to our success at the state competition….This season, our high school track and field team has shown remarkable resilience and dedication. Battling through one of the rainiest seasons in the last decade, with temperatures just above freezing, these athletes have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to themselves and each other
“The recent region meet was a testament to their hard work and a stepping stone towards the highly anticipated state competition next weekend…Choosing only four competitors for each event in regions country wise email marketing list was no easy task. We even had to hold a run-off for the boys’ 100 meters to determine who would compete and who would be on relays. Despite these tough decisions, the team remained united and supported each other throughout last weekend’s competition. Their commitment and dedication are truly commendable.”
In early May, one of my great pleasures was watching violet-green swallows in their fast, circular flights over water (e.g., the river, Kingfisher Pond). They’d just arrived from their wintering ground in Mexico and Central America and were preparing to move to their nesting areas. Flying insects form their diet; there are no reports of them eating anything else. I see these swirling flocks in spring and also in fall, as they get ready to move south. They seem to have been less thoroughly studied than our other swallows, but some basics (and a couple of odd-ball observations) have been documented.
“VGs” (as I call them) belong to the genus Tachycineta, which has nine species, mostly in Latin America. They are closely related to our familiar tree swallows, the only other member of the genus in North America, but they are slimmer and have narrower wings and shorter tails.
VGs, unlike our other swallows, nest in montane forests
from central Alaska to northern Mexico, using tree augmented reality in marketing: a new frontier cavities, rocky crevices, or convenient nest boxes, commonly in coniferous forest but also in mixed stands and aspen woods. Although they are often colonial, sometimes pairs nest separately from others. There are rare reports of them way out the normal range in central Canada, including fax database a mixed pair formed of a female VG and a male tree swallow, but the nesting attempt failed. As often happens for cavity-nesters, there can be stiff competition for nest sites, not only with other VGs but also wrens, chickadees, house sparrows, and so on. There is, however, a report of three VG pairs occupying western bluebird nests, cleaning the nest and feeding the bluebird chicks. The VGs may have inherited the nest sites after the bluebirds left.