I was in the U.K. this month for two weeks. We saw Scotland and England. When my husband and I decided we would go to England for the second week, I told him that the one must-see in England for me was Stonehenge. “For me, too,” he answered.

During my research (I’m a research-type gal), I found out that there were also stones in the village of Avebury. These you could walk amongst. The village grew up inside their circle, and there are additional stones within walking distance, although we didn’t go to the outskirts.

When we entered the first area of stones, a huge flock of some kind of black bird emerged from a tree and flew overhead with a loud cacophony. There were so many of them that I had time to pull out my phone and catch a video of the tail end of the flock. They did the same thing when we approached that tree again after circling around through the stones.

We weren’t the only ones there amongst the stones. But I feel like those birds appeared for us. Or maybe just me, because I have a thing for birds. I feel like they had a message. I feel like they were watching over the stones. In any case, it sure stood out as special, to me.

The next day, at Stonehenge, we had the earliest entrance time. And, per the suggestion of my guidebook, we skipped visiting the museum first to hop on the early shuttle and get there before the crowds. I’m so glad we did. I was able to take some photos without too many people in them. By the end of our walk around the stones, many people had arrived and photos without people in them were impossible).

But here is the incredible thing (and also why I’m so glad we got there before the crowds). As we approached the stones, some kind of corvid (I thought they were ravens, but after doing some googling, they might have been rooks) flew in (from where I’m not sure), cawing, and settled at the top of the stones.

What the heck is going on here? I wondered. Black birds at both sets of stones. Welcoming us? Announcing their presence. I dubbed them the “Keepers of the Stones.” And, if you think about it, there are only theories of why and how these stone places were built. And we are so very far from our ancestors who lived with the land and built these fascinating places. I think they understood so much more about the earth and the cosmos (in a spiritual way) and positioned the stones based on that. We lost the knowledge of these places, somehow. It wasn’t passed down through the human species. But you know who I think has that knowledge? Yup. The birds.

I found out in a book I bought about Stonehenge that the bones of ravens were found while excavating the site. Yup. The birds know.

The Keepers of the Stones.