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.

they are sleeping

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!

Bala Lamok is flowering again!

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.

not a native chicken
see the two long tail feathers?

So cool to see a Red Junglefowl in the refuge!

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!