December sunrise, cypress island.
Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina.

Dawn comes late on an overcast December morning. For just a few brief moments the sky lights up
with color before it pales again to the battleship gray it will wear for the rest of the day. A
stiff cold wind whips across the water; I wish I'd brought along the cup of hot coffee I left
behind in the car. Out on the water, out there by the island ... maybe farther ... out of sight,
hundreds, no thousands of Tundra swans are honking, squabbling, singing ... we are all waking up.