I used to dread going to the refuge in May, the hottest part of the year. It was stressful to see all that was green turn yellow and brown. This year however was not bad at all!
LOTS OF WATER
The Big Pond still has water! When we built the Big Pond last year, we made it as wide and as deep as we could. Our goal was to build a pond for wildlife that would capture rainwater and hold it year round unlike the ponds we had built previously which dry up during the summer months. The theory was that if we made the pond very big and very deep, it would retain water the whole year round. And the theory worked!
In the months leading up to summer, I wasn’t 100% confident that the water in the pond would last until rainy season. I was worried that the pond hadn’t collected as much water as possible. I expected the water to surround the island and maybe even reach the top of the spillway.
What an amazing sight to see a pond with water in the peak of summer! I think all the water plants also helped keep the water from drying up. It’s such a treat to visit the pond and see all the birds and plants. We counted 30 Philippine Ducks at the Big Pond. Seeing the pond in summer makes us want to build Big Pond No. 2!
LOTS OF BIRDS
We added a new bird to the Refuge Bird List. Bird #112 is a Common Moorhen Galinula chloropus. It’s not a rare or unusual bird, and is usually found in ponds. Seeing one casually walking on the bank of the Big Pond was so satisfying. We have added a new type of habitat to our refuge that wasn’t there before and now the usual cast of pond characters are showing up at our place!
There’s a family of Greater Painted Snipes living in the Water Lily Pond area.
The male greater Greater Painted Snipes are the ones that take care of the babies. This male stayed behind when I accidentally flushed a group of them from the Water Lily Pond. I think the ones that flew off were the juveniles. This male stayed behind for a long time. Maybe he was trying to draw attention away from the juveniles?
I spotted the female in the distance, far away from the family.
We saw a family of Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus at the horse paddock. There was a male, femaile, and 4 babies! The native domestic chickens are descended from this species.
Other interesting birds we saw this month were this Garden Sunbird at the Big Pond showing off its irridescent throat feathers
and this White Eared Brown Dove.
LOTS OF PLANTS
Our second Philippine Teak finally bloomed. We have a pair of Philippine Teak trees that came from the late Dr. Ed Gomez. One of them has produced flowers several times already since 2019. The other one just bloomed this year!
The lotus plants in the Big Pond have amazing flowers!
LOTS OF PLANS
We bought 150 pieces of Philippine Teak from Mark Carranza of La Luz. We will keep them in the nursery until rainy season comes around. Then, tree planting time again! He also gave us some native plants that are good as ornamentals — a type of jasmine and colorful shrub Memecylon edule.
This was a very nice May and I think it’s mainly thanks to the Big Pond!
Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge 