bog to a pond?

We moved to a new house on a little over 1.6 acres a bit more than a year ago. The rear 2/3ish is grown up, rather thick and I have been gradually clearing it so that we can navigate it better. It slopes down on two sides and on a third (the southern end) borders our neighbors lake. It is spring fed and recently I discovered we have flowing water on our spot as well. I would love to turn this into a pond, which will require dropping some trees, I have already begun with the smaller growth. Granted, I still have a bit of mapping to do as it's very overgrown in places, but from what I can tell there are at least three places I have found where it looks like water is originating from. By the time it gets to the northern end of our spot it is essentially a small creek. I feel like i have a general understanding of pond/lake construction, but having never done this, I feel a bit intimidated. I fear that any excavating equipment would sink up since the ground is rather soggy, and there is no real access to the opposite side without going right through the worst of it. I would assume getting rid of a bit of the plant growth and exposing it to some wind and sun would help dry it out a bit, but I am uncertain if it would be enough to make a real difference, it's very squishy. Any suggestions for approach or resources would be appreciated.

If this area is getting constant water input, then building a pond would be more or less removing dirt.
Sealing the bottom would probably be unnecessary since any loss would be replaced at the same or a higher rate as the loss.

My advice would be just to dig out a small area to the edge of the boggy area by hand with shovels.
Then just watch this area and see how the water does, see if it clears up or gets silty,etc.

If it stays clear and doesn't immediately fill right back up with silt, then you have some confirmation of the "pondability" of this area.

Thanks! Will do! I'll get back on here with the results after the work is done and it has had some time to sit.