In January of this year we had some very warm weather and I managed to come across a spotted salamander congress (like a murder of crows) and then they laid eggs for a few weeks and are now happy little axolotl looking things!
The pond is just about a year old and is about 8x8 feet and ~3.5 ft deep at the deepest.
Ooo, tad dry! We had the same thing, we’ve got a tiny little sink ‘pond’ and it dried out after a couple of days. Impressive that you got the life to return to quickly!