We have a blue heron couple that does pond hopping on our road which has many homes with ponds on a mile long stretch. One Blue Heron is a light gray and the other is a bluish dark grey. They only fly together when the mating season is in full swing and I have seen the same couple year after year for the last 5 years or so. They are solitary birds when not in the mating season. We see herons quite often in our area in western Tennessee. They like to be near or in ponds usually at the edge.
We have a lot of year round geese who frequent the same ponds.
Here in S.E. Michigan, there are two nesting sites in swamp areas, each about 10 miles from me. I never new they nested high up in the dead trees, I always thought they were ground nesters.