The Wonder Project Day 7: Fly!

I hear them before I open my front door. Hundreds of black birds fill the trees and pasture, chatting like friends at a backyard barbecue. My heart flutters a bit. Every year they come through, I presume on their way to a warmer climate, and every year I try to capture them. When they take fight, they move more like a school of fish than a flock of birds; this way then that, in a strange choreography that only they know. It is called murmuration, the way they move.  I am transfixed as they swoop and sway in the sky above my pasture. I can hear myself exhale slowly, as if breathing would somehow chase them away. I want them to stay. When they land down by my red barn, I run inside for my camera, hoping this time I will capture them. When I return, they don’t seem to notice me as they begin chatting loudly again to each other. I laugh. I can see their little beaks opening and closing. They must have something important to communicate to each other. Perhaps the latest weather report? Rain over Florida? Who is charge again? Is everyone accounted for? I don’t know, but it is funny to think about.

I manage to focus and click just twice before I hear the loud fluttering wings again. They are off in a blur of black with bits of red under their wings. Majestic. Glorious. Only God could make something like that.

Check out this amazing video of murmuration. Only God.

Grateful for another day of wonder.

Genesis 1:20-23 ~”God spoke: “Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life! Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!” God created the huge whales, all the swarm of life in the waters, And every kind and species of flying birds. God saw that it was good. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean! Birds, reproduce on Earth!” It was evening, it was morning— Day Five.” The Message Version