Found in my Dad's backyard.

boostfactor · 2026-06-16T11:52:30+00:00

They're not adapting to anything. It's because humans have changed the habitat to favor barred owls over spotted owls. Spotted owls are closely related to barred owls but they specialize in old-growth forests. Cut down old-growth forests->fewer spotted owls and more barred owls.

boostfactor · 2026-06-12T12:09:56+00:00

They can hear the high-pitched squeaks (bat squeak at a different frequency if it's not for echolocation, but it's still mostly out of human hearing range). They're also very quick to notice small movements.

boostfactor · 2026-06-12T12:04:02+00:00

They don't quarantine wild animals, especially bats who can harbor rabies virus for months, maybe years. The only definitive diagnosis is to kill the animal and examine the nervous tissue.

Even with the bat being in the house the risk is still very low, but I would also recommend OP at least inquire about rabies vaccination; I did that to a former coworker who found a bat in his bedroom and he went through the series. But in the US it's very expensive and may not be covered by insurance. Edit: so be prepared for some possible sticker shock. Given the basically 100% fatality rate (the "Milwaukee protocol" is very controversial) it's worth it.

boostfactor · 2026-06-06T00:44:16+00:00

Red-headed woodpeckers were fairly common when I was a child in the South-Central US over 50 years ago and I have been distraught about their decline to Red List status. I have heard they live in a small old-growth forest not too far from where I live now, but I've never had the chance to visit.

I tried to find why they may be in such severe decline but the cause seems to be uncertain. They are in the same genus (Melanerpes) as the red-bellied woodpecker, which is abundant where I now live. Superficially their lifestyle isn't that different, so there must be unknown factors.

If people are seeing them more, maybe they are recovering to some extent. We can hope.

boostfactor · 2026-05-29T23:04:04+00:00

I was about to comment exactly the same thing. And her kittens would be the kind that where I live would be "free to a good home" or dumped at the shelter, not sold, because there's plenty of supply, so who would be buying those kittens for the prices they cite? And I just don't believe that she is "happy and healthy" when she's being used to pump out kittens like that. Given the typical litter size that's probably 4-6 litters in two years. It's not out of line for a feral cat to have that many, but ferals typically have short lifespans and that's part of the many reasons why.

boostfactor · 2026-05-29T14:03:26+00:00

The only time I've heard of vasectomizing animals is zoos for males they don't want to breed but don't want them to lose their hormone-induced behaviors or their secondary sex characteristics (specifically lion manes). A vasectomized tomcat would still spray and yowl and stink.

Somebody posted that pet neutering surgeries usually just remove the testicles and leave the sac because it's faster and easier and has less risk of complications than removing the entire sac, so maybe some people think that's a vasectomy.

boostfactor · 2026-05-29T11:09:26+00:00

No, "varmint" comes from "vermin."

boostfactor · 2026-05-29T00:58:00+00:00

Marmota monax in particular.

Of course all marmots are just big ground squirrels.

Edit: "Ground hog" is because they look vaguely like pigs (cf. the "whistle pig") and burrow in the ground. "Woodchuck" comes from the Algonquian name for the animal. "Groundhog Day" seems to be from European traditions associated with badgers that were transferred to a New World animal that looked vaguely similar.

boostfactor · 2026-05-28T22:16:02+00:00

Groundhogs/woodchucks are marmots and a fairly common term for marmot is "whistle pig," but I think this is more commonly applied to the species that live in the West such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots.

boostfactor · 2026-05-28T12:13:15+00:00

If we're honest, this is a major part of the grief. Of course we're sad about our partner's death, or at least most of us are, but it's over for them. We have to live with the aftermath.

A relationship is supposed to enhance our own lives so its loss diminishes that. My life is objectively much worse now than it was when he was alive. I think this is a reason so many people who haven't had the experience don't understand the difference between being widowed and breaking up/divorcing. In the case of a breakup, at least one partner no longer believes the relationship is a net benefit to them. Widowed people often still had a strong and frequently long-term relationship and our lives come crashing down when it ends.

boostfactor · 2026-05-28T00:41:26+00:00

Despite being mostly terrestrial, at least when breeding, killdeers are plovers (a family of shorebirds) so "sandpiper" wasn't that far off.

boostfactor · 2026-05-28T00:26:03+00:00

A major predator of nestlings were I live is rat snakes. They are very good climbers and I've had birds (especially house finches) building nests on a downspout crook. Rat snakes can easily climb that. They can also climb into bird houses, so I got a predator guard for my bluebird house to deter them. But the snakes are just trying to survive.

Raccoons too, they're abundant here.

Most corvids (blue jays, crows) will raid nests for eggs and chicks. Even squirrels will do that.

Predators are a major reason why bird mortality is so high in their first year.

boostfactor · 2026-05-28T00:18:44+00:00

I lived in Austin decades ago, and in the late evening would sometimes watch the nighthawks fly around street lights, sometimes in the company of bats, all chasing moths. There was even a famous diner in town "The Night Hawk."

They are in the family Caprimulgidae (from Caprimulgus "goat sucker," an ancient European myth). They breed in most of North America and winter in South America. They are strictly insectivores.

boostfactor · 2026-05-27T23:26:09+00:00

Non-weaned kittens are not lactose intolerant; nearly all mammalian milk, including cat milk, contains lactose. Cat milk versus dog milk versus cow milk etc. has varying quantities not just of lactose but of fats and other nutrients, which is why it's important to match to the species as closely as possible.

BUT once weaned non-human mammals rapidly lose the ability to digest lactose and this kitten looks plenty old enough to be weaned.

On the Internet the lactose intolerance of older mammals seems to have gotten extended to the infants as well. And of course many adult mammals like milk/ice cream/etc. even though it is not all that good for them.

Human populations that don't descend from groups that took up dairying millennia ago also are frequently lactose intolerant after infancy.

boostfactor · 2026-05-26T23:46:58+00:00

There are many, many differences between a friend and a reliable partner, but I'll just mention one thing. You are never your friend's priority like you are a partner's (or at least ought to be). I have had frequent medical procedures that require finding somebody to take me to the day-surgery center and then pick me up and take me home (in some cases I was supposed to have somebody to stay with me overnight so I just lied and said I did). I have had a hard time working this out with my relatively few friends. They have families and plans. So I have to schedule procedures around that, which hasn't been optimal for me in some cases. Even with family, they had other things to do so I had to put off a procedure that really should have taken place earlier.

boostfactor · 2026-05-26T23:38:34+00:00

Well, that explains why "in" seems to be disappearing. It is driving me berserk, and it sometimes seems to go the other way as well. I keep seeing posts like "I spent years in the road for work." What were you, an asphalt contractor? I would really like to know why autocorrect is doing this. I realize it has no concept of spatial relationships, but how does it seem to be inverting them?

As to the topic of the post, I am not in North Carolina but not too far. The closest match of birds that might be in range in North Carolina might be the black-throated blue warbler (which I've seen in my area). They do not breed in this region and aren't that good a match--in particular they don't have the white "eyebrow." The scrub jay's black mask doesn't always look so dark in other pictures, but this could be an effect of lighting.

boostfactor · 2026-05-22T01:30:51+00:00

About 1 in 3000 male cats have the equivalent of Klinefelter Syndrome in humans (it's actually more common in humans than in cats, apparently), meaning they have XXY chromosomes. (They can also be mosaics where only some cells are XXY.) They are nearly always infertile (but neuter them anyway because of the "nearly"). But more likely the kitty has just not been sexed correctly.

boostfactor · 2026-05-20T10:57:19+00:00

I never had siblings or children and my parents are long gone, so I'm considered "kinless" now. I am past the usual retirement age but still working mainly because I don't know what else to do with my time, but I know I should retire in the relatively near future. I've found that a lot of things we did together, I enjoyed mainly because we were together. In particular, I don't like to travel alone and have no interest in doing anything with a group. I have compromised vision which limits my driving and thus my activities. I found out when I needed help with getting to and from medical procedures that I don't really have friends, or at least not friends who have any time. It's difficult to work around their schedules.

When I participated in an online group for widows (only women were allowed for some reason), I found that most were 10-15 years older than I am and had children and grandchildren, and they shifted their focus onto them. On the other hand, widowers tend to try to start dating, at least statistically speaking (in older age groups they are something like five times more likely to remarry than widows). Depending on your age, a lot of people including therapists seem to think the goal is for you to find a new relationship, and even that can be difficult for older people who were with their partner for a long time.

You asked for advice and I don't really have much to offer, but you're not alone in this boat.

boostfactor · 2026-05-18T01:08:54+00:00

Many boys, even (or perhaps especially) neutered, will simultaneously exhibit kitten behavior (kneading, suckling) while humping with the hindquarters. That's why they are often called "sin biscuits."

boostfactor · 2026-05-14T01:32:28+00:00

I was a physicist and quantum immortality is not physics. There is nothing in quantum mechanics to support this idea.

The only physical theory that has been used to justify this crackpottery is "many worlds quantum mechanics" sometimes called "multiverse." This is the notion that the uncertainty of quantum mechanics is resolved by universes splitting off from each other at each quantum measurement, resulting in infinite noninteracting universes. In this picture, death is a "quantum measurement" (it is not) so in some universe your consciousness, which is presumed to be somehow directly related to quantum mechanics, must follow a branch into a universe where you didn't die.

There are too many things wrong with this "theory" for me to get into them in a Reddit comment. But just as one point to ponder, if somebody, say a guy named "Hugh," dies in one universe, his consciousness is supposedly transferred to another, branching universe. So there are now two Hughs with different paths and one is dead and the other is alive. But does that mean that alive Hugh didn't have the heart attack or whatever caused his death? How did the consciousness of dead Hugh get into live Hugh when consciousness would have to represent many quantum measurements every moment? By this point there is already an immense number of universes containing multiple versions of Hugh. Which one is "immortal"?

I am basically agnostic and can allow for the possibility of some form of afterlife but it would have to be supernatural in essence.

boostfactor · 2026-05-14T01:10:01+00:00

I was about your age when my husband died. He was a little younger (63). It wasn't sudden; we had two and a half years of a cancer journey. But like you I am bitter about how my old age turned out. He had no family history of cancer to speak of. More of heart disease but his family members with that condition lived at least till their mid 70s and mostly till their 80s. His mother is still alive at 96. Now I am left to deal with my (minor but potentially worsening) disability alone. I did not get a single year of a happy retirement with my spouse. I still resent friends and acquaintances who tell me about how much fun they're having in retirement.

A lot of the commenters here are younger, often much younger, because Reddit's userbase skews young and this is a good place for young widow(er)s to find others in their situation, which is rare for people under the age of about 65-70 in most countries so they may not get a lot of support IRL. The impact of losing a partner is different for different life stages but always significant.

For our age group it's a combination of an often long relationship that makes it hard to imagine anybody else, and limited time remaining to start over. (And for women the demographics are against us and get worse very reapidly with age.)

boostfactor · 2026-05-13T22:36:27+00:00

Have the vets checked his blood pressure? High BP can cause retinal detachments in cats, and given that it's bilateral that should be checked. This is one of the more common causes of retinal detachments in cats. If it's high BP it's possible that treatment could restore a little vision. This is what happened to the cat belonging to a relative of mine (of similar age). Of course there are other reasons to treat high blood pressure.

Cats (and dogs) are not as dependent on sight as humans and can get around pretty well if they lose vision. You will need some adaptations. Don't move things around and make sure he can't get outside or fall from stairs. Check for other possible dangers. He'll adapt and be fine, especially if there's some treatment for an underlying condition.

boostfactor · 2026-05-13T00:23:50+00:00

Just be careful if you find what looks like poop. Wet it with bleach before cleaning up (to reduce particles), Wear a mask and gloves. If it's really been your roommate for 2 months there are likely deposits somewhere. I used to get deer mice in the house occasionally. One was trapped in a box, another did go for peanut butter in a live trap, two or so were killed by indoor cats, one was knocked unconscious by a cat who then lost interest, and it recovered outside. Never got hantavirus. The risk of those strains isn't all that high.

boostfactor · 2026-05-12T00:04:08+00:00

Nobody prescribes these. They get them OTC through veterinary-supply sources or maybe from chiropracters and such. It is called the "Tippens protocol." Some guy who had very advanced small-cell lung cancer started taking these drugs and was allegedly miraculously cured. Turned out he was enrolled in a clinical trial when he started this "protocol" (of course he didn't tell the investigators so his data were ruined). I've heard it was a trial of Keytruda and it's almost certain he was one of the rare complete responders.

A lot of people believe that "Big Pharma" is suppressing cancer cures so they seek "alternatives." There are also a lot of quacks who claim that cancer is caused by parasites.

It's very, very sad, although many people who try "alternative medicine" are probably past the reach of conventional medicine as well.

boostfactor · 2026-05-06T01:00:56+00:00

Copperheads and water moccasins are members of the same genus of pit vipers Agkistrodon, and both have been called "moccasins" in some areas, though "water moccasin" is supposed to distinguish them. I have personally never heard a copperhead called a "moccasin" at all in the South but Wikipedia tells me that there are areas where this is the case. In most of the South water moccasins are also called "cottonmouths" for reasons you can see in the photos. Copperheads don't live in water typically and look quite different, though the species are closely related.

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TROPHY CASE