Water level in the Paddleboat reservoir - question

We try to walk around the reservoir by the paddleboats/McLoone's a few times a week, but we were out of town for most of July and hadn't been back there until today. In the time from the first week of July to now, the water level is so, so low! There were sandpipers and (I think) plovers wandering over the exposed bottom of the reservoir. Still a few ducks, turtles and Canada geese there, but the cormorants were nowhere to be seen.

Easily a few feet back from the path all around, and the section closest to Northfield/McLoone's is a giant sandbar - I know lots of you walk the path often, and I was wondering if this is just from the hot/dry weather we had for July, or did they drop the water level for a reason? I didn't see anyone there to ask this morning.

It was such a surprise to see such a change in only a month.

We're pretty regular riders of the zoo train. The water level can get quite low in summer. I don't think the reservoir isvery deep.

We'd asked the paddleboat crews about the depth, and (back in June) they said it was 25 feet deep, but that's obviously not the case for the entire reservoir. Maybe just the middle is deep, but the ends are shallow. I missed seeing the cormorants, but it was cool to see the shorebirds.....wonder how they knew to fly over to West Orange? Usually they are in the marshes or the Atlantic beaches. Clever little birds.

The end down by McLoones has always been shallow. Not as shallow as it is now, but we have seen geese walking out in the middle and could tell how shallow it was. I think all the snow and slow spring, kept it even fuller than it has usually been since they put in the pathway. I am assuming the current shallowness is due to lack of rain.