Not a Nautical Term

I thought the "veronica" in Eamon Grennan's "oystercatchers in flight" (There Now ) was a word capturing the manoeuvres of the birds.

[…]
         a band of oystercatchers faces all one way
into a nor'wester so shafts of windlight
         ignite each orange beak in this abiding
tribe of black till you clap and their risen black
         turns white as they veronica on wind and
[…]

But what was an effect of wind was also an effect of light. The pattern of the birds — black turning to white — is likened to a sweat-stained shroud but perhaps more aptly to this definition of veronica: in bullfighting, a slow movement of the cape away from a charging bull by the matador, who stands in place. [said to be by association of the attitude of the matador with the depiction of St. Veronica holding out a cloth to Jesus] (New Oxford American Dictionary).

Not a nautical term. No.

And so for day 1841
28.12.2011