Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge

August 2024

You know how there are “before and after” pictures? August was a great month for AFTER pictures!

In May we had a fire, and then by August the traces of the fire had been erased. The grass grew green and tall again. The burned trunks were still there, but the landscape was nice and lush once more.

Last year we planted water lilies, typha, papyrus, and lotus in the Big Pond. One of the water lilies was a hardy variety called Nymphaea wanvisa from my pond in Alabang. It is a very pretty water lily that wasn’t doing that great in Alabang. It only gave me a few flowers . I cut it up and placed it into smaller pots and planned to plant them in the Big Pond when it was ready. I was hoping it would do better in the Big Pond.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw how big it grew in the Big Pond! It had spread and had so many flowers!

The Big Pond is thriving! I saw a White Breasted Waterhen scurrying in the grass beside the Big Pond. The plants are looking more established. Only one section of the Big Pond doesn’t have water.

I was excited to photograph a frog at the Big Pond. I was hoping it was native species. Sadly though, it was a Chinese Edible Frog (Hoplobatrachus rugulosus) an invasive species of bullfrog. It is also known as Palakang Bukid. I wrongly assumed that foam nests were made by the native frogs. It turns out that many other frogs also make foam nests. Maybe the birds will eat the frogs since they are edible.

And here is a beautiful serene morning video of Ollie at the Water Lily Pond.

that’s Lulu yelping at the end of the video

We also finally got a photo of a Colasisi at the refuge. It is another one of those “finally got a photo but it’s a bad one”! It was perched on an Agoho.

In August we also had a notable abundance of mosquitoes! This is the first time I experienced getting swarmed by mosquitoes during my morning walk. They swarmed over the dogs and bit my arms! I hope the bats, dragonflies, and birds keep them in check.

I also noticed that there were some fully grown trees that looked like the dried up and died. Not sure what caused this.

Another interesting observation was the snake that climbed a tree. Tonji saw a snake with a stripe along its body that swiftly climbed up a tree! He was surprised that it didn’t just slither away into the tall grass. We have been assuming that snakes are in the grass. Now we know they could be in the trees too!

July 2024 – Momo

On July 5 we went to the refuge with Momo, Lulu, and Ollie. We knew it would be Momo’s last visit to the refuge. Over the past few months Momo had been sleeping more and more, walking less and less. That week he had barely been eating. Just drinking water. He slept the whole time on the drive to the refuge.

We knew that as weak as he was, Momo would still be happy to visit the refuge. It was his favorite place! Back in the day, we couldn’t even say the word “farm” out loud if Momo was around. We had to spell it or else he would get all excited thinking we were going to the farm.

It was heartwarming to see Momo perk up when we brought him to the Water Lily Pond. It was like the Momo of old had returned to do his usual walking and inspecting of the grounds.

I thought had an even nicer video of Momo walking around, but my phone wasn’t recording!

A few days later on July 11 Momo passed away. He was 15 years old. It was tough to lose Momo. I just tried to think of all the happy times we had, especially at the refuge! Those were the best. I was also comforted knowing that he passed naturally, cradled in my arms. A week after he died, I got sick with Covid and was down for one week. I guess that was my body telling me I had to rest and recover from the stress of losing my heart dog.

When I was better, we went back to the refuge to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was so sad to remember Momo’s last visit. He was on my mind. Then I noticed that there were a lot of butterflies. At first I didn’t think much of it. Then a butterfly brushed against my arm at Big Pond. When I got back to the cottage I saw butterflies on the trees, on the small kamuning bushes, and even inside the veranda. There were butterflies perched on the window! There were so many butterflies that I thought, “It’s Momo!”

Tonji was out for a walk. He had gone out to look for interesting birds to photograph. When he got back he was excited about butterflies! He said that he had never seen so many different kinds of butterflies before! He was amazed by all the butterflies he encountered. There were so many of them! He tried to photograph all of them but couldn’t because his camera battery ran out of power. He wasn’t aware though that butterflies are a spiritual symbol of life after death, so he didn’t think of Momo. Whether or not the butterflies were spiritual messengers from beyond, it brought us happiness to see so many beautiful butterflies in the refuge!

Here are Tonji’s butterfly photos, with a few moths and a bee. Click on the photos to see in full screen!

May 2024 – Fire and Rain

FIRE

We had a fire on the property in May. We were not in the sanctuary at the time. By the time our caretakers spotted the fire, it had spread to around 1 hectare. It took an hour to put out the fire. Tonji inspected the burnt area the day after the fire. There are paths all over the sanctuary that are supposed to serve as fire breaks. Some of them worked to contain the fire. Unfortunately, some didn’t work.

The worst part of the fire

all the ashes

It was shocking to see the destruction. The ground was covered in black ashes. So many trees were burnt. It was sad to see our favorite paths and walkways wiped out by the fire.

We don’t know what caused the fire. Perhaps a trespasser with cigarette or sparks from a distant fire. We definitely need to upgrade our non-existant fire-fighting equipment and to improve on our fire breaks so that we can better deal with fires in the future.

RAIN

A few days after the fire, the weather made a 180 degree turn and the Philippines had it’s first typhoon of the year! The rain was a relief after the months of intense heat. The timing of it was something else though! We couldn’t help thinking that if the typhoon reached the country a few days earlier, we would have been spared the fire.

A few days after the typhoon, we went to the santuary to see the effect of Typhoon Aghon. Would it be enough to fill up the Big Pond? Tonji told me to wear rubber boots because everything might be wet and muddy.

We inspected the area that was burned in the fire. The ashes from the fire were gone! Even though it didn’t look as bad as it did right after the fire, I was still shocked at how brown and barren the surroundings looked. It didn’t look like our place anymore!

no more ashes

Then we visited the Water Lily Pond. The rain filled up the water lily pond! Whew! So glad to see that the pond survived the summer. It was so painful to see the water plants barely hanging on in a few inches of water. It’s a good thing the plants are able to bounce back after a good rain.

We went to the Big Pond. It wasn’t as muddy as we expected. The boots were overkill! The water level in the Big Pond increased by a lot. But the water still hasn’t reached all the way around the island in the middle of the pond. It also looks like there is some erosion on the banks of the pond.

water hasn’t reached the back of the island

The ducks are swimming at the far end!

We survived the hottest summer on record, a fire, and the first typhoon of 2024! What a relief!

April 2024

In April we were seeing record high temperatures. The incredible heat combined with a surge of work responsibilities made it very hard for us to visit the sanctuary. The plans for a new guest house were shelved. We are letting the idea sit for a bit more. We tackled one one of the many items on our list of maintenance tasks. This is our new, upgraded fence.

The one on the right is our new fence. The one on the left is the neighbor’s property.

We managed a quick visit to check out the ducks in the Big Pond. The pond looks perilously close to drying up.

Summer is when we all just have to endure and survive the weather. Everything looks stressed and dried up. It’s a treat when you see something that’s doing well in the extreme heat. Like the Balai Lamok near the house!

Another treat for us was being able to get photos of the Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus at the refuge! We had seen them in the refuge before and failed to get photos. We were driving through the mango farm area on the way out of the refuge when we spotted a Junglefowl on the path. Tonji stopped the car, I grabbed the camera and starting shooting though the windshield. Not our best photos, but at least we now have photos!

The Red Junglefowl looks like a domestic chicken. It’s called labuyo in Pilipino. You can tell them apart by the two long tail feathers, grey legs (not yellow like a domestic chicken), and the call. The native chickens in the Philippines originally came from wild chickens that were domesticated.

So cool to see a Red Junglefowl in the refuge!