Dammit, Jim, I’m a panda, not a stuffed toy!, originally uploaded by singingpixel.

Red pandas have been called “the cutest animal on Earth.”

I am very fiece. Also 6 inches tall., originally uploaded by singingpixel.

I am very fierce. Also six inches tall.

Basking, originally uploaded by singingpixel.

Northern Virginia, early April

A painted turtle seems remarkably tranquil despite the gaping crowds around her, and remarkably healthy despite the extreme pollution of the Chesapeake waters in which she lives.

I’m Ready for My Closeup, Mr. DeMille, originally uploaded by singingpixel.

Some of my friends asked, “How did you get him to look so cheerful?” Answer: I sang to him.

Sleepytime at the Spiderling Ball, originally uploaded by singingpixel.

European garden spider (Araneus diadematus), diadem spider, or cross spider

These pinhead-sized spiders hatched in my yard. If you look closely, you can see the yolk sacs still attached to their tiny bellies.

The little spiders stay close to each other the first few days, until they exhaust the yolk sac and start hunting. Their first few webs are disorganized sticky messes and the little spiders seemed rather surprised by the whole thing, for which I couldn’t blame them one bit.

In Seattle, many spider species overwinter, and in this case Mom Spider hovered nearby and anxiously gathered the little ones together and hustled them away when she felt I was too close to them.

A few weeks later these little guys dispersed all over the house, and I spent the next six months routing them from unlikely places (such as my shoes or the silverware drawer) and relocating them, under protest, outside.

Captured with my beloved Raynox macro lens. I wish I’d had a tripod handy, but when a photo presents itself, you just take it, fancy equipment or not.

The face of nobility…, originally uploaded by singingpixel.

Taken at Alki Beach in Seattle, WA.

These young bald eagles lived behind my house with their parents. In a pair of eaglets, the female is often bigger and more robust than the male, and the weaker bird sometimes doesn’t make it through the winter. On Alki Beach, where there are plenty of fish for the birds to scavenge, the birds typically did well. Still, we were concerned when the semi-fledged male showed distress and difficulty in learning to fly. His parent and sister flew out to the nearby buoy and called encouragement to him while he peeped and ran desperately on the beach. His sister finally flew back to apparently comfort him. Then she flew away again. With lots of coaxing calls from Mom (or possibly Dad) and Sis, the youngster finally flew off, circling ecstatically into the sky to the rejoicing of his family. A year later, he is a fine, snowy-headed, imposing eagle–with no reminder left of this rumpled and somewhat grumpy and pathetic baby.