This is the female barn swallow that was paired with the male from the earlier pictures.

Despite the pairing, she rebuffed his two attempts at mating (or at least having a bit of fun). Females tend to have lighter coloring in the chest than the males, which was pretty obvious in these two.

I took this picture with my big telephoto lens while standing on a little wooden bridge on the Kiwa Trail at Ridgefield. Before I bought the lens a couple of years ago, I debated long and hard on whether it was a worthwhile purchase.

When I get my first time machine, I’m going to pay a visit to that past self and slap him around a little bit for waiting so long to buy the lens, it’s become a real favorite of mine.