Murmuration

Yesterday's grace came in the form of learning a new word for an observable activity that has, in my mind, always needed a word to describe it.
As a little girl I loved the old maple tree at the back of the yard that stood beside the swamp.  Every evening as the sun was going down, the tree would fill with red-winged blackbirds -hundreds of them.  What a cacophany of sound!
Since then I've noticed bunches of blackbirds in the air almost swarming at times, over farmers fields, grabbing positions on telephone wires, rousting in trees lining the streets. This boisterous activity has been observed in every place I have lived.  The congregation includes hundreds of birds and is always loud! I have always found the experience of walking under the mass of birds profound and energizing -well unless it is a large group of crows and then all I think of Alred |Hitchcock and "The Birds".
I have always felt there should be a word to reflect the conference of birds, and yesterday I saw it in the newspaper (a very fitting word)... the gathering is called a murmuration.