Category: Plants

We had an awesome October full of birds and flowers! We finished building the big pond in September and then we had an incredibly fabulous October full of birds and flowers and fruits! Was that the effect of the big pond or just a coincidence?

We had 2 new bird species at our refuge! Two new species in one month is very good for us. We have now seen 106 bird species at the refuge. The new birds are Chestnut-cheeked Starling Agropsar philippensis and Little Ringed Plover Charadius dubius. Both species are winter visitors to the Philippines.

Chestnut-cheeked Starlings are exciting birds to watch. They gather in big flocks and fly together from one tree to another. They have the ability to disappear into the tree they land in! One moment you see a big flock of birds, and the next moment they’ve disappeared! Tonji estimates that there were 300 Chestnut-cheeked starlings in our place. It was difficult to get an accurate count because they were in small flocks and would show up in different spots.

Seeing all those starlings in our place was a dream that was at least ten years in the making. We used to make the 9-hour drive from Manila to Laoag to see look for migrant birds like Chestnut-cheeked Starlings. In 2013, our friend from Laoag Richard Ruiz gave us a mulberry tree to plant in our refuge so that we could attract our own flocks of starlings! The mulberry tree did not do well, but the flocks of starlings came anyway! We saw them on the fruiting Banato and Agoho trees.

Another big dream come true moment was at the water lily pond. Tonji went out on the tractor to cut the grass. Then after a short while, he came back to the cottage and signalled me to to get the cameras. There were 12 Philippine Ducks swimming in the water lily pond! It was noon and they were resting in the shade of the water plants! This is the most Philippine Ducks we have seen swimming at one time!

The other new bird we had was a solo Little Ringed Plover that seemed to be inspecting the new pond! Little Ringed Plovers are usually found in flocks in wetlands and along rivers. Perhaps next time this Little Ringed Plover will bring in the rest of its flock.

There were other birds inspecting the new pond.

The plants also chose this month to show off. The Balai Lamok near the house had the most flowers it has ever had. A few years ago, Balai Lamok trees were touted as the Philippines version of the Japanese cherry blossom. The photos of the mature trees full of flowers truly made one want to go out and buy seedlings! It became one of the most sought after trees among Philippine tree enthusiasts. When our Balai Lamok trees did flower though, they would only produce a handful of flowers. It was undewhelming and made me think they tree was over-rated. Until our tree produced this abundance of flowers!

The guava trees had bigger fruits than before. I thought that we had some kind of dwarf or native variety of guava that had tiny fruits. It seems that as the tree gets bigger, its fruit also gets bigger! 

I saw an Alibangbang tree full of buds! This was a first for me. I usually see them full of seed pods and miss the flowers completely.

And here are more birds we saw in October!