I had wondered about doing something like that too. I called the excavator today and discussed it with him and he said that he thought we could try do that.
I had a meeting with the guy that I have been dealing with and the owner of the company yesterday just to make sure we are all on the same page. They are going to build the pond in exchange for the dirt. However in meeting with the boss he was not willing to do the same deal for the second pond to the west. They are instead going to build the first pond I proposed a little to the west of my inital spot so that the drainage from the east culvert will not drain into the pond. This will make my watershed about 40-45 acres. I discussed with them all the things I learned in Mike Otto's series and they say they will include varying topograhpy, a 3:1 slope and all that stuff. They plan to get started on Monday next week!
By the way Tuzz according to weather.com the mean temp is about 5-7 degrees warmer over the winter in Greenfield, NY but you have almost 3x times the precipitation we get here.
Thanks for the input!