Star Tribune
Loons are Minnesota’s new icon, but they’re wintering in Florida
As the common loon is immortalized as the new emblem of Minnesota, the roughly 12,000 birds counted in the state’s population aren’t here to celebrate. They’ve gone fishing in the bath tub-warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The icons of the North Woods spend about half their lives in the Deep South, but there are reasons why they are more beloved here than down off the Florida coasts.
To start, the birds change their colors so much during their southern months they can be hard to recognize. They lose their striking black-on-white plumage, which turns into more of a dull gray in the winter. Their deep red eyes turn brown. Even their beaks change from a midnight black to light gray.
Loons can also be difficult to spot during their migration. In the fall they start to mass up on some of Minnesota’s deepest and clearest lakes, rafting together by the hundreds to chase cisco and other fatty fish. Then they tend to fly to the middle of Lake Michigan, far out of sight, where they spend a few weeks packing on energy by hunting feeder fish and invasive round gobies, according to studies the U.S. Geological Survey.
Once in Florida, they stay mostly quiet with no need to call for mates or fight for nesting territory. There are no young for the parents to carry on their backs. There are no small lakes that they have made their own. And even though they can dot Florida’s shorelines and bays by the thousands, without their colors or distinctive calls, they can be hard to differentiate from the millions of other birds that shelter and winter in the south.
Loons have been relatively successful finding a mate and rearing their young in Minnesota since the 1990s. Annual surveys show that the population has stayed right around 12,000 over that time. But there are warning signs, said Krista Larson, a nongame research biologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The surveys show about 0.5% drop each year in the number of chicks seen over the last 30 years, Larson said.
“That’s a small decline — there are no alarm bells yet,” she said. “But it’s still a decline. We have to stay tuned to see if that juvenile recruitment piece might be dipping.”
Come March and April, adult loons will get their colors back. The radar in their brains will kick on and the individual birds, which can live for 30 years, will find their home lake in Minnesota, returning to the same one out of 10,000-plus year after year. There, after six months of silence, they will let out their ancient mournful call.
Star Tribune
Two from Minnetonka killed in four-vehicle Aitkin County crash
Two people from Minnetonka were killed late Friday afternoon when their GMC Suburban ran a stop sign and was struck by a GMC Yukon headed north on Hwy. 169 west of Palisade, Minn.
According to the State Patrol, Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, and Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, were dead at the scene. The driver of the Suburban, a 61-year-old Minnetonka man, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Suburban, pulling a trailer, was headed east on Grove Street/County Rd. 3 at about 5:15 p.m. when it failed to stop at Hwy. 169 and was struck by the northbound Yukon. The Yukon then struck two westbound vehicles stopped at the intersection.
Four people from Zimmerman, Minn., in the Yukon, including the driver, were taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, while two passengers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Three girls in the Yukon ranged in age from 11 to 15.
The drivers of the two vehicles struck by the Yukon were not injured, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were dry at the time of the accident, and alcohol was not believed to have been a factor. All involved in the accident were wearing a seat belt except for Elizabeth Baldwin.
Hill City police and the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
Star Tribune
The story behind that extra cheerleading sparkle at Minnetonka football games
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Star Tribune
Here’s how fast elite runners are
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.