right before the storm

A couple of afternoons ago, I was out painting the trim around the house. I just happened to gaze up at the cloudy sky and saw, in the distance, a flock of birds high up in the atmostphere, slowly flying around in circles, just riding the air currents and gliding. At first I thought they were just some buzzards locating something to devour on the ground, circling the area. But then I noticed that the circling flock was not gliding over one specific area. The flock was actually moving in a southernly direction. I stopped painting and continued watching the flock. They were still too high for me to identify, but as they came closer to where I was, I identified them as hawks. They soon got directly above me, and there were too many of them for me to count. Some came closer to the ground. One actually swooped toward the tree in front of my house in a beautiful graceful dive. As it neared my tree, I confirmed that the birds were, indeed, hawks. It arched its dive and flew up toward the sky once again, but I was just amazed at the beauty of nature.
I figured the flock was moving away from a distant storm or disturbing weather condition; I was right-an hour later the tv reported the county was under a tornado watch and a hugh storm system just north of the valley. But as I watched the graceful flock circling in the sky, I was reminded of the native American legend of the Thunderbird and expected to see a hugh bird come out of the sky, riding a storm and surrounded by lightning, ready to swoop down on the people and carry someone away.