Wow -fire balls in the sky?

That sounds fantastic.

My stupid phone "plumage"

My guess would be starlings, their pllluma can be iridescent in certain light.
I'd love to have seen this.

Bathsheba, yes, if only - I thought the same myself, but I am glad I didn't miss any of it by rushing in to try to get my phone. There is no way I could have got it (and set it to video) in the time that this lasted.

Or flying saucers disguised as birds!

In the ten or so seconds that this lasted, I just had time to focus on the whitish flashes within the balls of fire, and work out that it was a reflection from the wings as they rose, so yes, I am sure they were birds - though they could have been alien birds, I suppose, rather than our usual Earth type

Sounds fantastic - in the literal sense of that word, I mean . If only you'd been able to video it!

Unfortunately, they were so well disguised by the 'fire' effect that it was impossible to tell what sort of birds they were, and there was no way of gauging how far away they were, so I couldn't even guess their size.

I watched a while in the hope of a repeat performance, but by the time more birds flew across that same bit of sky (only minutes later), whatever combination of factors had created the illusion had gone, and all I saw was a black bird silhouette.

The chances of anything living on Mars are a million to one they said.

And still they come.....ooooooo ooooo ooooooo.

Scary, are you still sure they were birds?

Sorry, reread your post. I wonder if they were starlings going off to roost.

Wow! Do you know what breed of birds they were?

It’s aliens!