Happy swallow couple

The "great blue wave" of Tree Swallows arrived later than usual this year—no doubt, because of the intense and late-departing winter—but once they set up shop in the abandoned tree holes crafted in earlier times by woodpeckers, the acrobatic birds got down to business: pair-bonding and mating. It's a little hard to see the individual members of this happy couple and, of course, it would certainly be easier, were I able to convince my wife... and myself... that I really should be able to spend $17,000 on the remarkable Nikon 800mm super-telephoto lens. But, so far, that argument remains unwinnable. You'll just have to look closer at the birds and imagine that they're billing and, heck, cooing... although the latter is actually the sound made by Mourning Doves, who are also pairing off in the wooded swamp that my granddaughter and I visited late this afternoon.