Our new bird for the refuge is a Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata! It is another migrant bird. It is fantastic to see that our place is attracting migrant birds. In the past, during migration season we used to visit the popular and well-know birding sites around the country where migrant birds come in to rest and refuel. It was always fun to see if any unusual, rare, or new birds turned up with the usual migrant birds. It would be amazing if in the future all we needed to do to see a rare bird was to travel to our own refuge!
Northern Shoveler with two Philippine Ducks
The Northern Shoveler is bird #107 for our refuge and our third duck species! We have seen Philippine Ducks, Wandering Whistling Ducks, and now a Northern Shoveler. It was mixed in with the Philippine Ducks at the water lily pond. In October, we were elated to see 12 Philippine Ducks at the water lily pond. This month I counted 2o Philippine Ducks in one photo, plus the Northern Shoveler makes least 21 ducks in that water lily pond! We have almost doubled the number of ducks in the water lily pond!
20 Philippine Ducks flying out of the water lily pond
It would have been fantastic to see all 21 ducks swimming in the water lily pond. This time however, I was foiled by Ollie who managed to escape from the cottage, find me hiding by the pond, and flush all the ducks. Foiled by the dog! The good thing is that now when the ducks fly out of the pond, they look like they are headed towards one of the other ponds.. In the past, when the ducks got flushed, they would fly overhead in a big circle, calling out the whole time. Now, they fly off in a straight path. We assume they are flying to one of the other ponds.
We now have 8 ponds in all, including the big pond. It is very possible that there are more ducks and other birds in the other ponds that we still haven’t seen and Ollie hasn’t flushed out!
Philippine DucksEgret, Philippine Ducks, and Northern Shoveler
The big pond has more water than ever, thanks to all the rain we had in November. Our water plants are doing well! We planted water snowflake and typha, which are native. The other water lilies, papyrus, lotus, and saggitaria are not native, but the ducks seem to like them.
We also planted Typha aka the hotdog plant in another area of the big pond
The Big Pond
It was so wet and rainy in November that the path from the big pond back to the cottage became so slippery that we had to take the long route home. All the rain is welcome! Momo enjoyed walking home in the mud and we enjoyed imagining the big pond bringing in lots of new birds!
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.
Banato treeAgoho tree
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.
Little Ringed Plover
There were other birds inspecting the new pond.
Island Collared DoveIsland Collared DoveLittle Egret
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!
Balai Lamok
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.
It is nice and cool at the refuge. Our Malabulak trees have so may buds! It will be amazing to see them covered in flowers. The Katmon is also full of fruits. Or are they big flower buds? I am not sure!
KatmonKatmonKatmonlook for the Malabulak buds
Now that we have the Burley Bark Ranger, we can go walking for as far and as long as we want without worrying about Momo and Barkley getting too tired. Both of them fit inside!
We went on a 2 hour walk in the morning. First we saw the Pied Harrier getting mobbed by crows. At first there were just 2 crows. Then there were about 6 crows. Poor Pied Harrier!
Next we saw 2 Coppersmith Barbets in a small tree right by the path. They did not fly away even when we walked past them. This was very unusual. We don’t usually see Coppersmith Barbets and it’s much more common for the birds to fly away when they see us.
We walked to the pond, then decided to go to the mango area. After that we walked on the road to the pavillion area, then back to the cottage through the nursery. I saw a Grass Owl fly by when we got to the house. But no pictures of that.
Blue Tailed Bee Eater
Other Interesting things in January
CIVET CAT – Tonji saw one Civet cat at the start of the year
A VERY DARK DUCK – Tonji thinks it could have been a Wandering Whistling Duck, which we already have in our bird list
TURTLE – I found out that the workers saw a land turtle in the secret pond! I haven’t seen that!
2 PHILIPPINE DUCKS – it was good to see the ducks again, but why are there only 2 of them? What happened to the others?
MAYBE 2 GUIABEROS – We saw two birds flying and heard a high pitched call that was similar to but not quite a Colasisi call. Could it have been 2 Guiaberos? That would be new to our farm bird list! We just saw them as silhouettes and the shape looked possible for Guiabero.
MUCUNA sp – There is Mucuna / Cowpea vine is crawling on the ground at the top part of the pond. We need to remove it because the flowers are very itchy!
VISIT WITH FRIENDS – It’s nice to be able to show our friends the water lilies! It’s like we have an added attraction at the refuge.
lots of action going on at the pond!Olliedon’t mind me, I’m just swimming alongMucuna Mucuna
Rainy season came early this year. The sanctuary was nice and green in May! This is very unusual for our area. The new pond looked like a big mud puddle. The dogs enjoyed it very much,
nice cool mud!
There were a lot of Binayuyu fruiting all over the sanctuary. The birds seem to be spreading the Binayuyu trees all over. When we bought our property, there was one big Binayuyu tree outside our old entrance. I thought it was such a pretty tree and that it was a shame that it was outside our property. Now we have many of them!
We were able to see and photograph the Asian Koel that we have been hearing so often. Tonji saw 3 of them in a Banato tree beside the dry creek. He was able to describe the location to me and I saw two of them.
My bad photo of a Koel. They are hard to see!
JUNE
There was even more rain in June. There was water everywhere! There was water in the dry creek and in the old small ponds. There was enough water in the new pond to start planting water plants. I’m hoping the water plants provide enough shade to keep the pond cool and prevent too much water from evaporating. I hope this helps keep the water in the pond year round. We also added guppies, but I’m not so sure if they survived the heat of the water.
Lulu doesn’t like the water as much as the other dogs do
The dogs enjoyed all the water. They inspected every puddle that they saw. They waded in the new pond whenever they had a chance.
I brought Momo, Lulu, and Ollie with me to inspect the gully that goes around the property. That area usually looks like a dry creek bed. The rain transformed it into an exciting hike over mud with water crossings! It was so much fun to watch the dogs find their way through the trail. Especially Momo who had to do a lot of climbing and jumping! It reminded me of a mini version of the canyoneering trail we did in Moalboal many, many years ago with our young children. There portions where we had to jump into the water, swim across, then step on our guide Wolfgang’s shoulders to get out to the other side!
Momo looks like a puppy!Lulu doesn’t like to get wetMomo jumping over a rootMomoa fern!
I also had good views of a Coleto. It’s great to see a bird that is usually associated with forests. I also got to photograph a Common Emerald Dove. We see them a lot in flight. They usually fly low enough to see and ID them, but too fast to photograph.
ColetoCommon Emerald Dove
JULY
July was awesome! In July my pond dreams came true! I was able to walk up to the pond and watch ducks swimming around and walking! I got to watch the ducks hanging out! With our old ponds, it was more like if you walk up to the pond you won’t see anything until you are very close and then the ducks will get surprised and all fly away. It’s great that we have this bigger pond that we can see and appreciate even from afar.
sweetdreamsaremade of these!
Here are some other cooperative bird subjects!
Mangrove Blue FlycatcherIsland Collared DoveIsland Collared DoveLesser Coucal
The Balai Lamok beside the cottage finally has a lot of flowers. This tree received a lot of hype among the Philippine native tree enthusiasts. It was touted as the “Cherry tree of the Philippines. It became one of the most expensive and most desirable native trees, especially when people would post photos of mature trees in full flower. They looked amazing. We also bought into the hype, but our trees have only produced one or two flowers at a time. This tree beside the cottage was given to us by a friend. This is the first time we’ve seen it flower this much!
Balai Lamok
The Philippine Teak beside the cottage also has flowers!
Philippine Teak
More interesting trees:
Look at those hanging rootsIs this Lipote?Ardisia?IpilMabolo
AUGUST
One side of the new pond developed a leak. Thankfully, it was repaired and the pond is still retaining water. Crossing my fingers that the water holds out during summer. Tonji also said that he will be doing some repairs to the big pond in summer. I hope the plants survive all of that! I am also hoping he also has time to build more ponds.
I sewed 500 flags for marking all the new trees being planted this year. We started planting some of the Malabulak seedlings. They are quite tall already and are starting to form thorns on their trunks.
I am enjoying propagating water plants in Alabang and planting them at the farm. The water lilies and other water plants are doing better at the farm than they were back in Alabang. They must like being planted straight into the ground and receiving full sunlight. I also improved my water plant transportation technique. I now put them in ziplock bags. I reuse the bags.
N Daubenyanasagittaria and papyrusthis is a hardy water lily that’s doing much better at the farm than in Alabangwater snowflake and N TinaOllie, careful don’t uproot the water hyacinth!Momo, watch out for the water lilies!
I developed COVID symptoms while we were at the farm. Tonji had to force me to go home so I could test myself properly and rest. I am ok now and looking forward to what the next months bring!
Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge 