I went out to take pictures of the pond just as the large bird with long legs, huge wings, and a long sharp bill (Bill calls it a crane and I call it a great blue heron) was landing for the night, so I didn't bother him. It's neat that he comes here nearly every night, but where does he go during the day? What does he do? He is a near shore, shallow water feeder so he's not going out to hunt on the prairies. If he goes to another pond to feed, what makes this a better place to sleep.
Maybe I'm assuming the wrong thing. Since herons should be just traveling through on their way to the Texas coast for the winter maybe the same one isn't coming back. Maybe it's a different one every night.