Murmuration Of Sandpipers Is A Bizarrely Beautiful Spectacle

This beautiful video of dowitchers and sandpipers in flight was taken at Ocean Shores near Washington in November 2018. The extraordinary flashing between black and white is caused by the bird's breasts are white and their backs are black. The birds move in synchronize but are not led by a single individual, but ideally is governed collectively by all of the flock members.

There is a natural phenomenon known as a murmuration of birds. This is when these magnificent flying creatures are closely grouped together and move in an invisible unison, as if being orchestrated silently behind the hidden veil of things, by one who knows all and loves all.

The remarkable thing about flocks is their fluidity of motion. When one bird changes direction or speed, each of the other birds near it responds to the change nearly simultaneously. scientists hypothesize that it is behavior learned to increase survival when under attack by a predator.

Stares or Starlings are highly social birds and, in the non-breeding season, some roosts can number birds in their thousands. There are various theories as to how starlings achieve such extraordinary collective responses, researchers admit that it remains largely a mystery. Some researchers think it is this constant quest for centrality that puts the murmuration in a state of permanent flux, as birds continuously fine-tune their flight to reach the safest possible position. The starling population has fallen by over 80% in recent years, meaning they are now on the critical list of birds most at risk.

How and why they do it aside, murmurations remind us that nature’s beauty takes limitless forms, shocking and inspiring us time and time again.
There are so many beautiful things in the world, that when we stop to think about even one of them, we will be tempted to cease all our worldly activities, and completely surrender to an indescribable bliss that just wells up from within us for no apparent reason.

This murmuration of birds is merely one of the more dramatic examples of God's ineffable beauty, a divine message saying to all of us that just because you see me in the skies in these grand displays, does not mean you should stop looking for me in the most ordinary of things and of moments.

For, despite what you have been led to believe, that is where you will truly find me. Not in churches, architecturally perfect, yet missing that indefinable something that is spirituality in its essence.

You will find me in nothing; yet, in everything.