Ponds are nice for many reasons, mostly because water is tremendously attractive to all wild things.
But ponds in Wisconsin are problematic. It's difficult to get permits to create them where they have not existed for thousands of years. And that is because the habitats I do control, have special interest to the DNR.
On my property I have wetland with seasonal water saturation. Thats a problem as that habitat isn't much supported by landowners over the last hunded years. . A pond is a thing that's attractive for many reasons, a wet area that is a not-pond that is too wet to drive across much of the year is not of much interest. To wet to graze and and not wet enough to swim in or ice-skate on.
Complicating that, on my wetland I have small populations of a native iris which is rare in my area. I also have sedge; sedge meadows are the most threatened habitat in the county I live in, and with some effort I could have one of the largest in a radius of 10-15 miles. Sedge meadows are generally threatened throughout the southern part of the state. But they aren't my interest, because after you get rid of woody plants it's largely a hands-off and let it do what it does sort of thing.
In pursuing my interests I've got to satisfy the species I want to attract and amplify, while not bucking the Dept of Natural Resources over-all management rules.
What I want to do is to encourage some more species of insectivorous birds. I"ve got many such species that are active in daylight. But I don't have those that are active in the quiet semi-light of early morning and late sunset. 65 years ago was living in a small town with those birds in my summer evenings. I saw them by the dozens every evening... NIghthawks, Whipoorwills. Chimney-swifts swirling in the growing dark held my attention more than The Flintstones and Bugs Bunny. I'm not sure I can ever get to that, but I'd really like to see a few of them again.
So I'm interested in anyone's experience that actually attracted such birds.
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