I returned to the dry heron pond this morning, this time with my wide lens, looking to take a few landscape photos and looking to explore more thoroughly.
 
I tried circling the pond both ways but was stopped from going any further both ways by soft mud. In the end, I wasn't able to explore much further than I did the last time I visited. There were few ducks in the remaining water this morning but a good number of common shorebird species with Killdeer and Lesser Yellowlegs making up the bulk of them, 2 Great Blue Herons, 1 Great Egret, and lots of Cedar Waxwings. A raggedy looking Red-tailed Hawk circled over the pond a couple of times but none of the smaller birds that could have been a potential meal for the hawk seemed to care.
 
I took note of the stains on the stumps and rocks I walked by to get an idea of how deep the water should have been. In one area, where I was nearing the soft mud that had me turn back, the water was down two feet, while the area closer to the corner where I am normally stuck viewing the pond was down only half foot at the most. The average depth appeared to be one foot. The deepest parts of the pond, the parts that still had water, appear to be closer to three feet but probably shy of that by a few inches.
 
The photo at the bottom shows the stand of dead trees that once was the site of seven Great Blue Heron nests. Many of the trees that were once there and most of the nests have fallen down within the last year.