Last tuesday, october 11, 2016, i was outdoors working in the yard, when i became aware of an object in the sky which was at great height, it was also star bright against the blue of a perfectly clear midday. at first i was inclined to dismiss the anomaly as a plastic bag or balloon, as it seemed to be floating with airy swoops and then, as i trained my eyes on it, i could see that it was cylindrical. it then started to move against the wind from east to west, traveling end over end. a number of strange things happened during my observation. to start with, i became aware that all of the birds (lorrikeets, wattlebirds, mudlarks etc) fell silent; just as they do in the presence of a predator, they had been raucous until a few moments before i sighted the cylinder. the other interesting thing was that the anomaly seemed to respond directly to my thoughts (i know that this is a preposterous suggestion and that its subsequent change of direction was purely coincidence) - but twice it seemed to react to my thoughts. the first time i thought "come this way you bugger, so that i can get a better look at you!" and to my surprise, it changed its direction from heading west and then arced toward me in the north east, again traveling end over end (almost like a boomerang) and then when it was directly overhead, i thought "stop...So that i can see you better." and to my surprise, it did. still it was very high and it appeared to be being mobbed by white birds, small white dots were swooping in toward and then away from it. i craned my neck to look up at it for a good minute or more and despite the wind, it remained stationary. i then considered the possibility that it was some type of drone and that it was paused to take surveillance images for some unknown entity (presumably a corporation) and as a result my mug and it's awestruck expression was being captured for someones database - for reason's unknown. as soon as i entertained this thought, the thing tumbled away leaf like toward the eastern horizon and was soon lost from sight.