This morning as I drove toward my friend's house, I was stopped at an intersection where a flock of birds were swooping back and forth over the street. A few miles away there are two gas stations across the street from each other, and all day, a flock of pigeons will do that and it's mesmerizing, just like watching fire or the ocean--where it is constantly moving yet always staying the same.
In the marshlands of southwestern Denmark, I guess a similar thing occurs every spring and autumn as groups of starlings migrate between winter grounds in south Europe and summer breeding grounds in Scandinavia. They gather in flocks of thousands, and up to a million birds during the hours just after sunset and make huge formations in the sky before settling on where to roost for the night. It's quite a dance and sometimes the birds are so numerous that they seem to block out the sun, hence the name for the phenomenon--"sort sol" which translates to "black sun" in Danish. The flocks make incredible, fluid shapes in the air and apparently do so for hours before roosting. I see videos about things like this, or read about them, or even just see that flock this morning--and sometimes there's so much amazing shit in this world that I just can't take it.
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