UFO Sighting in Stonington, Connecticut on September 6th 2015 – String of glowing balls approaching from west, unblinking, silent, passed overhead

I arrived home just before midnight and as I was walking towards the house, I glanced up through the trees to see the stars. I noticed some VERY bright stars and then that they were the wrong color, amber, and were moving. They were approaching in a string from the west. They did not blink like a plane, were round, glowing, and silent. I grabbed my phone and tried to video them but my hand was shaking so much I was afraid it would be poor quality. (It was). I ran into the house and yelled to my wife that there was a flock of UFO passing overhead. I have NEVER seen them before and NEVER been a UFO buff so my wife took notice. She quickly got up and came outside with me. We stood on our balcony and watched them file overhead, one by one, eight to a dozen or more, like beads on a string, silent, glowing balls, one after the other. They seemed to waver a little side to side like they are following each other. As they started to move off approximately east by north east, we heard a plane sound approaching from the south and a plane came into view, wing tip lights visible, belly light flashing, unknown model of craft, but flying in the direction of Providence, RI or maybe following the balls of light. I cannot be certain it saw them or not, but it appeared to be at their height. I would estimate over 3,000 feet, but far less than say, 20,000 feet, not aircraft cruising altitude. The balls appeared to be at that level. We have discussed what we saw with our neighbor, the local police commissioner who also has an aircraft business, and have not found any rational explanation. I have found a still photograph on-line from 2 hours earlier that night over Michigan which is much better quality than mine and is absolutely identical to what I saw that night except I saw many of them. Oddly enough what I saw came from that direction. I apologize if this is a duplicate, but I have filled out many such descriptions in the hope of finding someone who has an explanation and I have yet to find anyone who does.