1. In the back yard of my house on the western edge of small city. I had an 8" telescope set up to view the Orion Nebula and also to view Messier 81/82 near the constellation Ursa Major. 2. I looked up and quickly glanced, naked eye, at the constellation of Ursa Major and registered that there were stars that appeared as a small star cluster just to the south of the constellation itself, and just as I looked away I realized there is no star cluster in Ursa Major. It's initial appearance was just like a smaller version of the Pleiades star cluster.I re-acquired the lights due south of the lower two stars of the Dipper as it moved between (apparent size) the 2 lower stars heading north, again with the naked eye.3.When I first noticed it I thought it was a star cluster. When I looked back at it, it had moved, and was still moving in-between Merak and Phecda (2 bottom stars of the Big Dipper). I continued to watch it with my naked eye for 5-6 seconds, and then leaned over and acquired it in the view finder scope of my telescope. 4. The optic is a 6x30 mm Orion finderscope. It has crosshairs and is a straight tube version. I tracked the lights until they disappeared at about tree level height - from trees that are the next block over. In the viewfinder, they still appeared to be 5 lights - 2 on each side and one at an apex of a triangle shape. They were symmetrical, non - blinking, monochrome, completely silent, stayed in formation, and moved fairly quickly in a straight line from south to north. In the viewfinder they were not blurry - but rather small and constant points of light - only started to "shimmer" when it was very low on the horizon and just above the treetops before going out of sight. Apparent size, naked eye was about 3 degrees. Merak and Phecda are a little over 10 degrees apart, the triangle formation of lights was approx. 1/3 that distance from tip to tip. Length was equivalent. Motion was constant, fairly quick. With the naked eye I watched it move about 30 degrees south to north in approx. 4-5 seconds.5. Felt a little surreal, since I have seen many strange but explained phenomenon in the sky as an amateur astronomer. My first reaction was a little dis-belief at was I was seeing, but then to try and acquire with optical aid - hence the finderscope being used. The only thing I think of that would be a plausible explanation would be migrating geese - it is the right time of year, the right formation, and the right flight path. Some strikes against the geese explanation are 1) Totally silent - geese usually make honking noises in flight that you can hear - as long as they are flying low enough to hear them 2) Since its apparent size was roughly 3 degrees, that would put these geese very high up. The viewing conditions were clear, good atmosphere transparency, no visible clouds, and in other words moderate to good astronomy viewing (viewing III). At that height if city lights were reflecting off of their bellies I would not think they would be able to reflect enough light back to appear as bright as they did naked eye (though the lights could not be described as "very bright", they were just about as bright as the average of the star brightness in the Dipper). 3) Speed of movement. If the geese were that high (no sound, small area of 3 degrees for whole formation, and point-like light rather than "fuzzy orb" reflection appearance) then they were moving pretty quickly since it moved about 30 degrees in 4-5 seconds.6. The object started to shimmer in a typical fashion for objects low in the sky. Normal atmospheric effects causing the lights to shimmer. It then abruptly faded from view.