Ashburn Deer

My contribution to Eileeninmd's Saturday's Critters #76:


This young mockingbird was just learning to fly when I took pictures of him in D.C.

I found this jumping spider on my car in W.V. He/she/it/spider refused to cooperate with my paparazzi efforts, and so was taken into custody. (Released unharmed, albeit somewhat annoyed, after pics.)

Last but not least, here is a Common Whitetail Skimmer (Plathemis lydia) in Washington D.C.

Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Palomino

My contribution to TexWiscGirl's Good Fences #62.





P.S. Here's another Fiery Skipper.

Update: The rhododendrons are mostly done now, and the azaleas are all done. Here's a fence from May 15 when they were still blooming:

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Fiery Skipper

My contribution to Eileeninmd's Saturday's Critters #75. Here are a couple of Fiery Skippers from Ashburn, Va.


I saw several of these hummingbird moths (Snowberry Clearwing, Hemaris diffinis), but it was very difficult to get a picture. They never hold still! You can see the right wing and side of this one (best to open it in a new window and click the '+' symbol.)

Mrs. Cardinal was too far away for my 5X optical zoom to get great pixels, but she's so perky I'm putting her up:

Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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What Dog?

My contribution to TexWiscGirl's Good Fences #61.




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Do Grackles Cackle?

I've never heard one, but I'd like to think so. My contribution to Eileeninmd's Saturday's Critters #74.

I saw this butterfly the day after making this comment.





UPDATE: Bonus Grackle Pic

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Wisteria Fence

My contribution to TexWiscGirl's Good Fences #60.




A couple more pics of my sister's tree peony:


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The TPP: Our President Drops The Mask

My last post on the topic. Dean Baker continues to do an excellent job of exposing this shameless sellout.

One Democratic Senator (Tom Carper of Delaware) joined 51 Republicans voting for fast track. Mitch McConnell voted against it when it was clear it would fail so that he can bring it up again. So who will benefit from the TPP?

The People's View:

Big labor unions and liberal members of Congress have picked a fight against the global expansion of the rights of workers by mounting do-or-die opposition against the Trade Promotion bill moving through Congress that will allow the President to bring the Trans-Pacific Partnership to Congress for an up-or-down vote. In doing so, American labor is displaying key symptoms of its self-inflicted collapse.

Rep. Paul Ryan, on CNBC with Joe Kernen shilling for the TPP this morning, does not give a hairy rat's behind about the rights of workers. Neither does the Chamber of Commerce, also shilling for this execrable multinational corporate government deal.

I remember when President Obama's fans explained his Catfood Commission as "eleventy-dimensional chess." It wasn't. He's been working for Wall Street the entire time.

President Gas is tap dancing
For the banker he's a thief
He isn't very honest
But he's obvious at least

P.S. This isn't over. There will be another vote tomorrow, after a couple fig leaves have been added. Our President and the GOP only need 7 or 8 Democrats to switch votes to get this through the Senate. Some who voted against it yesterday are just hoping for token concessions in order to cover their fealty to the richest few.

The people won this round because Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown effectively organized opposition and because voters persistently called their Congresscritters to let them know it's a bad deal. Keep calling!

Cross-posted at Whiskey Fire. And at Kos.
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Five-lined Skink and More

Eileeninmd's Saturday's Critters #73 is up.

Here is a Five-lined Skink next to the Washington & Old Dominion Trail in Ashburn, Va.:

A week ago I ran across the bunny again, this time while walking Theda. She (Theda) was thrilled!



A few more pics from Ashburn:

A Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetle in the Twin Creeks Trail Area:

Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions. (For example, you can see that the beetle has hairy arms.)
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The Grass On The Other Side

My contribution to TexWiscGirl's Good Fences #59.




In other beesness, here's my sister's treasured tree peony:

Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Rabbit, Don't You Sea?

My contribution to Eileeninmd's Saturday's Critters #72. (Title refers to this post from the upside-downies.)

This bunny lives under a motor home a few blocks away.

In other beesness, the azaleas are blooming:

Kitty is more concerned with Theda than my camera: