Birds

This evening, just after sunset, I arrived home from school. I was unpacking the car (Walmart supplies for an upcoming bash) and noticed a cloud of birds or bats or something swarming above the roof of my house. I stood there staring long enough, thinking, "Is it just me, or are they really circling my house? No, they are circling. Why are they circling? They'll fly on soon... No, they're still circling..." that my across-the-street neighbors called out to me.

"They do that every day," they told me, without having to ask what had struck me dumb. "We like to watch them. Eventually they'll start swooping into your chimney -- the other night we counted over a hundred, but those little buggers are too fast for our eyes."

And they do -- the neighbors (watch my house all the time from their front porch) and what I assume (after some Google research) are chimney swifts (swoop into the chimney and swarm around it). One of the men repeated several times that we should "smoke 'em out and roast those little buggers up." The woman added, "Yeah, they just keep flying around your house every evening. Kind of creepy."

Yeah, it's all kind of creepy.

Why are they doing this? Why are they doing this? They said when you got here, the whole thing started. Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? I think you’re the cause of all this. I think you’re evil! EVIL!
-- Mother in Diner, The Birds, 1963