Rodney the blue heron pecks through the shallows along Fort Loudoun Lake. He seems to appreciate the warmer temperatures, according to Stephanie Briggs, who captured this photo.
“Like all of his kind, he was a solitary pilgrim, strange in his ways and governed by no policy or creed common to flocking birds. Ada wondered that herons could tolerate each other close enough to breed. She had seen a scant number in her life, and those so lonesome as to make the heart sting on their behalf. Exile birds. Everywhere they were seemed far from home.” – from “Cold Mountain” by Charles Frazier