What did I see?

A bright star shone through the fog tonight, (probably not the most famously large bright star.)  It was flickering or twinkling rather intensily.  For a while I thought it might be an aeroplane.  But there was no chance of that after three minutes.  Then I realized that there were two stars there and perhaps a dimmer third star.  Then I noticed an even stranger thing.  The small line between the stars would sudden grow in length a bit and then go back to its normal size.  So the stars pulsed a lot but the light would expand to the right every twelve seconds or so to resemble a tiny bird, then suddenly shrink only to expand and shrink again and again.  I don't think this was my imagination.