While i was outside adjusting an infrared light for a live stream i run on youtube i stopped to admire the stars and look for satellites as i often do. i noticed one moving straight north just below venus at about half the brightness. after watching it for a short time i noticed another identical object following it. i thought it was odd that 2 satellites were following each other like that so i called my girlfriend on the phone who was inside the house to come look from the back porch maybe 150' east of me. she acknowledged she saw the same thing i was seeing and then pointed out more of them coming behind them. we stood outside in the dark for about 20 minutes watching them quietly drift across the sky. i stopped counting at ten but i don't think there was more than 20. the objects mostly were following each other in a line but some were staggered. they were brightest near venus and for about 20 degrees or so then dimmed similar to a satellite. it almost gave the impression of getting farther away from the ground although it may have just been farther from my vantage point. the objects appeared to all be similar. none moved different or had a different color or brightness than the others. none of them appeared to have strobes. there were commercial aircraft in the area at the time which seemed closer and had pulsing or strobing lights as usual. i am near a city but still pretty rural. my property behind the house is swamp partly with cat tails and part with some other much taller grass. at night we have a lot of black birds who roost there. while we were out watching the lights something started crashing around in the swamp scaring the birds. it could have been a spooked deer or coyote trying to grab a snack. i can't say it was related to the lights but it did happen at the same time and was a little out of the ordinary so i thought it may be valuable. we didn't notice any sound from the lights or commercial aircraft.