The Drought Goes On

I try and fit a walk into my morning routines and one of the places I like to go is our local recharge ponds.  These feed into our underground aquifer and are filled from local reservoirs.  Except, at the moment, they are not.  They have been allowed to dry up, causing the birds that called them home to move on.  There are no ducks, geese, herons, egrets, wading birds, or coot left.  When I walked there this week, early in the morning before the marine layer had burned off, the only birds I saw were turkey vultures and a shrike.  It was dusty, smelled of dry grasses which made my nose run, and the tall dry grasses rustled in the light early morning breeze.   It could be a while yet before we get any significant rain.  It often doesn't rain much until after Christmas.  I wonder how this will impact the migrating ducks and birds that rely on this place later in the year?