Kate McGinn
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Kate McGinn
@kate-mcginn.bsky.social
Visiting Professor studying the effects of climate change on wildlife using bioacoustics, movement ecology, and ecophysiology. Professional and recreational hooter | she, her, hers

Colorado College | UW Madison | USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station
Gentle parenting my reviewers. “Your feelings are valid!” “Do you have a question based on this statement?” “Critical comments without constructive feedback hurts authors’ feelings unnecessarily—is there a way you could say that differently?”
September 30, 2025 at 9:02 PM
My student said I ate today
a black bird is sitting on top of a fence post in the woods .
ALT: a black bird is sitting on top of a fence post in the woods .
media.tenor.com
September 11, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Can you identify this cutie baby? Perhaps my favorite timberline tree.
September 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Can you identify the two tree species in the photo? My undergraduate students can!
September 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Me and my Ecology students to a trip out to Hoosier pass to learn about the climatic drivers of tree line and work on our field identification skills. We brought our class mascots Clarke and Tony with us to boost morale!
September 9, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.

I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.
July 3, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
July 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Got hitched! Of course I had to have an emotional support barred owl in hand ;)
July 3, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Womp womp 👉👈
The authors want to thank two anonymous reviewers who offered helpful criticism in the form of an 11,000 word spiteful monograph
March 21, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
The authors want to thank two anonymous reviewers who offered helpful criticism in the form of an 11,000 word spiteful monograph
March 19, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Release the most unhinged sentence from your notes app I dare you
February 21, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
Trump is offering all federal workers a buyout with seven months’ pay to shrink the government—but that’s not the whole story. Reports reveal some employees are being pressured to resign or face termination under the guise of organizational restructuring. In short: take the buyout or be fired.
January 28, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
The Trump administration’s rebranded Schedule F policy aims to reclassify federal employees in policy roles as at-will, removing civil service protections. This will politicize agencies by allowing dismissals based on political alignment.
January 28, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Peep our new paper! We leveraged our bioregional acoustic monitoring program to study the effects of fire on the distribution of forest owls in the Sierra Nevada.

doi.org/10.1002/eap....
January 17, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
The largest wildfire in Texas history just happened eleven months ago and destroyed thirty times more area than the one in Los Angeles
January 13, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
"Yes, wildfires have always happened in California, but climate change is making them worse" by David Knowles for @yahoonews.com: www.yahoo.com/news/yes-wil...
Yes, wildfires have always happened in California, but climate change is making them worse
As the narrative of the Southern California wildfires has shifted to identifying the causes behind what could prove to be the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history, a common refrain has emer...
www.yahoo.com
January 14, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Added another void of darkness to the family. In the process of teaching him about forest succession and how to drive.
January 15, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
My inaugural post is for my paper recently out in GEB! A contribution to the conversation around local biodiversity change, we reconstructed thousands of functional diversity time series to assess shifts in functional structure for bird & mammal communities. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
No General Trend in Functional Diversity in Bird and Mammal Communities Despite Compositional Change
Aim Despite unprecedented environmental change due to anthropogenic pressure, recent work has found increasing dissimilarity due to turnover but no overall trend in species diversity through time at...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 7, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
🌡️🔥Climate change isn't a distant threat—it's a public health crisis now. Our study shows heat-related deaths in many cities could surpass annual COVID-19 deaths in just 5–10 years at 3°C warming. Urgent action is needed!

👉 rdcu.be/d5rnL

@natureportfolio.bsky.social #scientificreports
Rapid climate action is needed: comparing heat vs. COVID-19-related mortality
Scientific Reports - Rapid climate action is needed: comparing heat vs. COVID-19-related mortality
rdcu.be
January 10, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Leading a workshop next week on preparing scientific figures, and I will be sharing a few lessons learned. I would love for y’all to comment with some useful tips for grad students and maybe some of your own figures that successfully communicate your work!
December 5, 2024 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
Around this time last year @boyswillbebugs.bsky.social, @allomygale.bsky.social, @spissatella.bsky.social, @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social and I published an open letter on supporting transgender persons in STEMM.

We have decided to open to additional signatures 🧪⚒️🦑

medium.com/@transrights...
An open letter to the scientific community in the US and UK on the crisis impacting transgender…
Downloadable file
medium.com
December 4, 2024 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Kate McGinn
PI: Should we add field assistants as co-authors?

Co-PI: mmm... They did not write anything... You know that writing is the hardest part!

PI: OK!

Field assistants 👇🏿
December 4, 2024 at 5:02 PM