This morning I got up to go with the Salem Audubon Society on a birding trip to Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge.

When I got up this morning, a spectacular near-red sunrise greeted me, but by the time I got to Ankeny, a little cloud brightness was all that was left.

A storm was coming, however, and the birds sensed it. We didn’t see too much until the end of the trip when we spotted a peregrine falcon surveying the marsh.

In the next field over we spotted a bunch of American pipits (no pictures) which was exciting for the group and a first for me.

But my favorite photo was this one, of a fluffed-up female kestrel on a slim little tree looking over her territory.

Could be a painting…?