My unexpected brush with bird watching

I saw something really beautiful from my kitchen window just now. If I were dancer, I would dedicate a piece to this moment. If I were an artist, I would surely try to capture it on a canvas. I am neither, but I am moved; feeling blessed and awed.

Yesterday, around the same time, I saw a flock of birds fly past a beautiful orange streak in the sky. I was lucky to get a decent picture, which I was too excited to share on Instagram. As I gazed out today – without the pressure f capturing the moment on camera – I noticed that the birds didn’t just fly past. They seemed to be flying in a circle. It was a large cloud like shape made up of tiny black specks, that swirled close enough for me to be able to make out the wings fluttering in unison! The sky seemed to be vibrating in the space where they flew. It was such a pretty sight that I couldn’t take my eyes off.

What I had expected was that the birds would soon disappear. However, for what seemed like forever, the swarm kept moving around in perfectly choreographed circles. At one point I felt that they were moving away, and guessed that this was probably how they travelled – by flying in circles till they reached the destination. Seemed like a very tedious, energy consuming way to get home! So I made a mental note to look it up on Google.

The sight had such a soothing rhythm though, that I found myself just standing and staring, feeling oddly calm and mesmerized. After what seemed like very long, in one beautiful sweep, they descended like falling leaves – though not all. The flock seemed a little smaller now. Around the same time a few lone birds joined the group, and started following the pattern – flying around in a large-ish circle path. A few minutes later, the same fall repeated. A flawless downward brush-stroke – though again, not all. A very small group continued the beautiful aerial dance, until in one final sweep, the sky was clear again.