On the homey campus of George Fox University, in the midst of the beautiful surrounding nature during the sunset, I was witnessing an event that mystified me.

“This is insane.”

Those were my exact words as I gazed upon the sight of hundreds of birds swirling around the chimney of Armstrong House, one of the housing options on campus. The words were not profound, or elegant, or unique — but they were all I could think of saying.

It’s amazing that I even got to witness it. The only reason I even knew that this congregation of winged creatures was going to happen is because a friend of mine suddenly remembered that it was occurring and rushed over to Armstrong. His sudden excitement and rapid explanation of what it was piqued my interest.

He informed me that during a period of a few weeks every year, hundreds of these birds meet at sunset everyday, dancing around in the sky in a giant whirlwind of commotion. After some time, all of these birds suddenly fly into the chimney to nest. In the morning, they all fly out.

Luckily for us, now is that period of a few weeks where we can witness this incredible event.

Apparently these tiny birds are called Vaux’s Swifts, and what they do is not unique solely to our campus. They nest in a chimney in Portland as well, and do this for a few weeks before they move on for the winter. However, this was the first time I had ever seen anything like this in person.

I simply stood there, trying to process what I was seeing. Hundreds of birds suddenly appeared, flying in from every direction. The majority of the birds then began to fly in a coordinated pattern, swirling around as a tornado of flapping wings.

All of these birds had coordinated an appearance at the same place, at the same time. Despite how small the chimney was, all of them dwelled in it. Even though there was so many of them flying around in a small area, they were synchronized in their movements.

And there wasn't a single thing I or anyone else had to do with it.

I was completely lost in the moment as I watched these birds. For that small amount of time looking into the sky, I was completely removed from the chaos of life and was fully in that moment: standing on that sidewalk, gazing at the orange and blue sky filled with black specks, looking like a silly tourist with my mouth wide open in amazement.

So many moments like these occur everyday, yet in the rush of life I go right by them without noticing. I’m glad this wasn't one of those moments that I just passed by.

It was mesmerizing; it was unique; but most of all, it was beautiful.