3 airborne objects lit with orange lights seen over Manhattan

At the time stated above I was walking back to my building from a nearby supermarket, walking east. I noticed something with 3 or 4 orange lights approaching from the east. At first I thought it was an aircraft taking off from La Guardia, but I could see no strobe or navigation lights, so it got my attention. It continued moving to the west, I would say it was below 2,000 feet, until it got to about my 2 o'clock position when it slowed down, then turned to the south. I then lost sight of it below the buildings. I could hear no sound from it.
There were 3 young Guys outside my building who had been watching also, and were quite excited. Then another 2 identical objects appeared, following the same trajectory, but were much closer to each other. They made a similar turn to the south but their paths were diverging just before I lost sight of them. I spoke to one of the Guys who told me they saw another identical object before the 3 that I saw, and that it moved much faster than the other previous 3
I got into my apartment by 8:45pm and looked at Flight Radar 24 on the net. It showed no tracks of aircraft or helicopters in this area. Aircraft on approach into La Guardia were coming in from the south, over Brooklyn, onto runway 4. Aircraft taking off were using 31 going out to the east, towards Long Island.
The wind was coming from the north east but the objects were all taking a southerly turn over Manhattan, and I could see no flickering of the orange lights. They could not have ]been magic lanterns. I'm sure they were not aircraft or helicopters. I considered balloons, but I would not think the winds would suddenly veer over Manhattan. I guess drones are a possibility? I imagine other people must have noticed them.