Movement of the stars relative to my position
The Milky Way consists of numerous faint stars near our galactic equator.
Many of these are visible in binoculars.
As time lapse videos show, they move across the sky along with the bright stars.
The light and dark patches in those digital images are easier to see visually near the galactic center in Sagittarius than in the opposite direction near Orion.

Due to its oblique angle, the galactic equator appears to go through a special cycle as everything revolves around the celestial pole.
From mid-northern terrestrial latitudes, it runs overhead NW-SE when Orion is highest, low in the north when Virgo and the Big Dipper are highest, and overhead NE-SW when Cygnus is highest.
We see no more than half of this cycle on any given night, which may explain the illusion you perceived.