the murmuration

owl feather on black velvet, sx-70, polaroid 600 expired film

While tim and I were driving out in the country this week, we came through a piece of bare forest that hugged the sides of the road. My eyes caught on a huge murmuration of starlings rising black and bold, piecemeal as one, from the branches. They filled the sky above us as if on a movie screen and then turned as one organism back from where they took off. It was only a few seconds until we were driving right under them, simply taking in the impression of thousands of birds in black relief against the winter sky, and then we were past, breathless and laughing.

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