Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge

June 2023

This month we had two exciting developments at the refuge! Here’s the first one:

Woo hoo, the Burley is attached to my bike!

We went biking with the Burley Bark Ranger! It rolls very well and is surprisingly easy to pull! It is faster and takes less effort to bike with the trailer than to walk and push the trailer. Having a bike to get around the refuge saves so much energy!

First Tonji attached the Burley to his bike to see if it works well. Success, Momo likes it!

Our second exciting development is a new, very big pond! I like to call it a lake because it is going to be much bigger than our previous ponds. It is still in the planning stages. We watched a lot of videos showing how man-made ponds and small water impounding areas attract a lot of wildlife. Capturing rain water and preventing it from running off is one of the basic concepts of permaculture. It is a way to restore the underground water table and allow more life to thrive in an area.

We were very encouraged by our experience with the water lily ponds. With our other ponds, we didn’t add plants or fish and just observed how the pond would develop. With the water lily ponds, we built the ponds so they were more accessible and easier to view. Adding water plants and guppies made the ponds come alive! It was enjoyable to hang out at the pond and observe all the activity goint on there.

Our goal for the new big pond is to build a pond that is beautiful, deep enough to hold rain water all year round, big enough to paddle around in a small boat, and attractive to all sorts of wildlife, especially birds! We hope it will be a beautiful spot where we can hang out and do relaxed birdwatching.

First we had to find a location for this new pond. With Tonji’s experience building the other ponds, he knew that the ideal site should be as flat as possible. If the site is sloped, then you will need to build up the lower end to make it as tall as the higher end. That makes the pond more difficult to build. We also wanted a site that was shrubby and weedy and not have too many trees to uproot. Another consideration was accessibility since building this very big pond would require big bulldozers, backhoes, and trucks.

Once we selected the site for the new pond. The next step is to bring in the people and machinery to build it. At some point, we will also design a simple structure where we can sit in the shade while watching birds. Something that will function like a bird hide but hopefully look prettier!

Checking to see if the new pond fit in the mango area

Look for the double rainbow!

I think this is the start of a new phase of how we enjoy the refuge. It’s the biking and the hanging out at the “lake house/bird hide” stage!

May 2023

In previous years we would avoid going to the refuge in May because it was so unbearably hot. This year however we had a lot of rain. Not just light summer showers but solid rain with thunder and lightning!

Ollie enjoys playing in the rain

Ollie playing with his soft frisbee. It’s easy to throw and easy for him to catch!

When the sun came out again, Ollie surprised me by going into the pool by himself! This was the first time he did this.

Our interesting birds this month were:

Plain Bush Hen – it was hanging around while Tonji was flattening the path beside the water lily pond

Rhabdornis – it was perched on the tall (non-native) tree near the camping area. We don’t see them that often.

Red Junglefowl – we finally photographed one at the refuge! Unfortunately it was with our iPhones. But still!

Can you spot the female Red Junglefowl on the left side of the path???

Philippine Nightjar – I forgot to write that in March we saw Philippine Nightjars flying around the pool and taking sips of water!

April 2023

April was hot and I only got to do one quick visit to the refuge. I was able to see the Philippine Teak and Balai Lamok flowering! The water levels of the ponds were extremely low. I wanted to save the water lilies but I also felt a little conflicted about adding water to the water lily pond from the deep well. Was I wasting water? It would have been ideal if the pond water could last the whole year round. However, we decided to just go ahead and add water to the pond before completely dried up.

this is the small water lily pond

I think it was a good decision to add water to the pond. The water was very low and very warm but also very clear! I had never seen the water that clear before. There was so much life at the pond. There were tadpoles swimming and dragonflies flitting about. Usually we just see the red dragonflies. This time there was also a big blue one and small ones with other colors!

There was still enough water in the big water lily pond. We didn’t need to add water to it. The plants I was most worried about saving are the peach colored Colorado water lilies. They are in the deepest part of the pond. Tonji thinks the water in that section of the pond will last until rainy season.

the Colorado water lilies at the big pond

there are also dragonflies here!

I am quite happy with our experiment in planting water plants in these two ponds. I did not plant anything in the other ponds, mainly because I didn’t know anything about water plants back then. I think the water plants and guppies brought in more living things to the ponds. The water looks alive, not like a stagnant pool of water. I also think the water plants help to keep the water from evaporating too quickly.

In April, we also had more doggie health woes. Lulu and Ollie got kennel cough and Momo got very sick. I thought Momo was going to die! Thank goodness he pulled through.

March 2023

Barkley passed away in March. He had a heart problem. In a matter of days, he became very weak and was laboring to breathe. It broke our hearts to say goodbye to him. It was strange and painful to go to the refuge without him. One of the reasons we bought the property in the first place was so that Barkley and Momo could have space to run around. We joked that we bought our dogs a farm and that we should call it “Barkley and Momo’s Farm”. I’m glad Barkley was able to enjoy his farm. He loved to go in the pool and the ponds. He was so confident and independent that he would sometimes just run back to the cottage by himself in the middle of a walk. He was so good at communicating what he wanted that he got to do things like ride with Tonji in the tractor while he was cutting the grass, sleeping on our bed even if he wasn’t that clean because had been running around in the fields, and riding on his blue boat while being pushed up and down the entire length of the pool.

The dry season officially started in March. It is very hot and sunny. The grass isn’t green any more and there is a lot of amor seco. Our water lily ponds are slowly drying up. I want to add water to the ponds and save the water lilies! There are so many of them and it would be so sad to lose them all.

the baby water lily already has a flower even while still connected to the parent leaf!

the smaller pond is losing a lot of water

the big pond has also lost a lot of water

Tonji saw a pair of Greater Painted Snipes near the big pond with the water lilies! That brings our farm bird list to #104! So cool that we have seen and identified 104 bird species at our place! He sad they were in the shrubs on the left side of the pond. Unfortunately, I wasn’t with him at the time and he wasn’t able to photograph them. I looked for them, but no luck. Hopefully, I will see them some time in the future.

This is one of my favorite videos of Barkley. Of course it was taken at the refuge, our happy place. This shows the kinds of shenanigans we shared!

It’s a baby shark!