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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️

@skwinnicki.bsky.social

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · Feb 12

Hi new followers, I’m SK!

Do you know that trope where a character is eaten alive by a dark secret and is forced to publicly confess it? That’s how I feel about every cool fact I learn, and until I can get back to teaching again they’re all coming out here, so buckle up!

Thread of fave posts:

Picture of SK, a pale person with blond hair in a messy braid—a poorly constructed braid not an intentionally messy one, hidden below a ballcap and sunglasses reflecting the Allegheny Plateau forest around me. I'm dressed in a tie-dyed tshirt that says Konza Crew 2017, from my Master's work on grassland sparrows; the shirt includes outlines of a Grasshopper Sparrow, Dickcissel, and Eastern Meadowlark that I drew. I am holding a towhee, a large species of sparrow, in my hand before the bird was released back into the forest. It is hard to tell in the photo but the bird is possibly a bilateral gynandromorph, with black male-type plumage on one side of the body, and brown female-type plumage on the other side of the body.

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 9h

Not that I’ve seen so far

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 12h

Our church commissioned a hymn for its 150th anniversary and the writer was inspired by their trans friend who was constantly confronted by people questioning her faith, and it shows 🥹

Screenshot of a notes app, reading: "God never stops creating" by Pax Ressler
Verse 1: I never thought that my life could change, way down in the depths of despair, but God found a way to make me anew and surround me with Her loving care. I know that I'm loved, not despite who I am, but because God created me so. God still speaks, and with my life as proof: God never stops creating, never stops! Creating in you, creating in me!

A second notes screenshot, reading: Verse 2: God teaches us to love everyone, whether stranger or foe, so why wouldn't we choose to love ourselves too, and everyone else that we know? We know that we're loved, not despite who we are, but because God created us so. God still speaks, and with our lives as proof: God never stops creating, God never stops creating. Never stops! God never stops creating, creating, creating!

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 14h

Evening update: owl model is definitely not scaring the squirrels

Pixelated cell phone photo of the white beanie baby owl now on a log near a tray of peanuts. An Eastern gray squirrel sits on the log near the tray, looking at the owl.

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 16h

There was definitely a part of me that wanted to, but also (in my experience as a student and a teacher) the best way to learn these things is by getting unexpected results and having to think them through yourself, so I wouldn't want to take that away!

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 16h

Every year I was like "this is the time, I'll finally shake it up with some warm colors" but then I remember that's just not me

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 16h

Of course I use my real name on here, so if anyone needs to know who I am and where I'm at it's all there in my linked website. Something I've valued for awhile (advocating as my full self) but lately feels a little like it was a bad plan. Too late now though huh

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 16h

I haven't done it, so if you've tried to DM me I'm sorry, I don't have access.

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 16h

Just last week when I posted about how I hated Ohio's new verification laws (requiring I upload my ID to Bluesky and other sites) people acted like the risk wasn't a big deal.

404 Media @404media.co · 20h

BREAKING: A catastrophic breach has impacted Discord user data including selfies and identity documents uploaded as part of the app’s verification process, email addresses, phone numbers, approximately where the user lives, and much more.

🔗 www.404media.co/the-discord-...

The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare

A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...

www.404media.co

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 16h

I think that would've been my junior year, so 11 years ago.

To think, we had a lot of snow just 11 years ago, more than I've seen here in years, amazing how climate changes adjusts your expectations that quickly.

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 16h

I still tried to do it, but a sudden increase in snow obviously changed the foraging strategies as well, since birds suddenly had fewer resources on the landscape. And it made it very hard to reveal a plastic owl (probably also not perceived as a real owl) when we could barely get to the feeders.

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 16h

When I was an Intro Animal Behavior student I designed a study where I filled bird feeders and recorded species' interactions at the feeders. Then I intended to reveal a predator model (plastic fake owl) and see how that changed the prey species' interactions. But instead we got 1.5 ft of snow.

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 18h

When I saw a beanie baby owl in a shrub in the urban park behind my house I wondered if someone was trolling me, but then I saw the "Please don't touch, doing science" note an noticed the owl was above a tray of peanuts, with a predator-model-free (owl-less) tray nearby haha

Fluffy white beanie baby owl with large eyes and tiny colorful wings, tucked in the crook of a small sapling so it is over a tray of peanuts.

Half a sheet of notebook paper taped to a tree trunk. In very small, almost unreadable handwriting it says "Please don't touch doing sciences" in blue ink. Definitely could be written larger on the sheet; I had to use binoculars to read it from the path.

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 17h

I unfortunately know very little about ID from areas I've never been, but this would be my guess! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_s...

Great spotted woodpecker - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 18h

That's good at least!

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 18h

This just sounds like measles to me?

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 18h

I love the "friends when everyone is full, but if someone's hungry y'all better watch out" scenarios.

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 18h

Also, the main peanut-consumers in the park are large tree squirrels and Blue Jays, both species that would not be threatened by a small owl even if the owl model was one that could be perceived as a small owl by the prey species.

Giving me "intro animal behavior student" vibes, which I adore.

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 18h

Notably, the "owl guarded" tray was empty, the owl-free tray had peanuts. Can't say much without replicates, but I'd guess that local animals don't view this "owl" as a threat at all (doesn't look like a real predator) and may be attracted to the novelty of it, stumbling upon the peanuts.

Same white plush beanie baby owl tucked in a sapling, above an empty gray tray that looks a bit like a litter box, in an open forest urban park.

Similar tray nearby, but this one has peanuts on one side and a fine powder on the other.

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 18h

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 19h

Unfortunately "time for sapsuckers" also means "time for finding sapsuckers dead under the campus windows"

Get your lights out at night and treat your windows so these beautiful dears can make it through migration alive.

(CW for dead, not gory or anything)

Hand holding a dead Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a dark woodpecker with a light yellow belly, white patches on the wings, and heavy gray markings. With this angle, you can see its neat woodpecker feet, with two toes facing forward and two facing backward.

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 19h

Thanks! We made field crew shirts every year and dyed them at an end-of-the-season party!

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SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 1d

I love their loud voice!

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 1d

So so smol!

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 1d

It's perfectly squirrel-sized!

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 1d

aww sploot

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 1d

These are both government agencies, I'm wondering why they're different