malabulak – Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge

September 2023 – The Big Pond is Finished!

The pond construction is done! On September 6, we told the contractor to stop digging, bring out the heavy equipment and to close the pond wall. Monica and Kristian came over so they could walk on the pond floor and see the pond in it’s “before” state! Who knows, if we are lucky a big storm could hit us and fill up our pond!

It is a bit late in the season for a big storm to hit us. This is more like wishful thinking! It’s nice though to be done with the construction and all the disturbance it brings to the site. Now we just have to wait for rain. A lot of rain!

I think it the big pond will be amazing once it’s full of water. Maybe, it will be like the water lily pond, but more! Bigger and better! It is so enjoyable to see all the activity in the water lily pond. We saw diving beetles, a lot of wild passionfruit, and bird tracks!

Diving beetle

We celebrated Tonji’s birthday at the big pond. We went for the day with some wine and water plants! We also moved all the seedlings from the nursery to the big pond. We will plant them around the area.

Happy Birthday Tonji!

January 2023

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!

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.

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.

Fabulous Firsts in February!

All these amazing this happened this month!

First photo of a Philippine Duck swimming in one of our ponds!

Philippine Duck swimming in a small pond — Philippine Duck

I’ve taken lots of photos of Philippine Ducks. This one is a first and very special to me because I’ve been dreaming of taking this shot ever since we made our first pond! We know we have Philippine Ducks and we know they use the ponds. We have photos and videos from the wildlife camera of Philippine Ducks swimming in our ponds. I’ve been dreaming of taking my own photograph of one of the ducks while it’s in the water.

In this particular pond, you can stand on the path, peer through the weeds, and check to water for birds. I was so excited when I saw a duck swimming! I tried to move slowly and quietly so I wouldn’t alert the duck or the dogs. Haha, the dogs had no idea that there was a duck close by! I also had to manually focus the camera because of all the weeds.

First time for our Malabulak trees to have lots of flowers!

Malabulak trees in a row Bombax ceiba — The ones with flowers are only 3 meters and 4 meters tall

In 2017 one of our Malabulak trees produced a bud, but the bud didn’t turn into a flower. In 2018 we had a few buds and flowers. This year we have lots of flowers on several trees. These trees attract a lot of birds when they are in flower. We haven’t seen any birds on ours yet, maybe because our trees are not very tall yet.

First time to see the flower of the Alibangbang tree!

We have lots of Alibangbang trees growing wild in our refuge. They produce seeds and sprout all over the place. Yet I never saw a flower. I wanted to see a flower because this would confirm the ID of the tree. I was assuming that the trees we have are Bauhinia malabrica, the native version of Bauhinia. The Bauhinia that is usually found in urban settings is the imported, non-native version Bauhinia purpurea that has big purple flowers. It is a popular ornamental plant. The native Bauhinia has small, yellow flowers. In 2018 I was able to definitely confirm the ID of the tree. It was a bit anti-climactic though because all I saw were unopened buds.

First time to see a Grey-Faced Buzzard Butastur indicus in the refuge!

Grey faced buzzard in flight — Bird # 101 Grey-Faced Buzzard

We now have 101 species on our refuge bird list! This bird is a migrant. I was standing on the veranda of the cottage when I saw it flying by. I hope that it uses our place as a stopover!

We still have two weeks left in February. I’m looking forward to what the next two weeks bring!

Birds of February

February has been a great month for hanging out at the sanctuary. The oppressive heat of summer is still a future concern. The ground is still nice, moist, and yielding. It only took Tonji nine days to dig up Pond Number 5. I was able to clear a big swathe of hagonoy in a new area using just my hori-hori hand knife. Momo and Barkley enjoyed long morning walks through refreshing dew-covered grass, with stops every so often to admire the birds!

The Agohos are among the fastest growing of the trees we’ve planted. Their height makes them a popular perch of the orioles and crows.

We saw 5 species of doves in February. We had Philippine Cuckoo Dove, Zebra Dove, Pink-necked Green Pigeon, Spotted Dove, and Philippine Collared Dove. The Philippine Collared Dove was perched on the wires along our entrance road. We saw it on the same wire on two different weekends.

Tali and Laiya are still around. Will they stay through summer? Or are they migrants?

Tali

Tali vs Crow

There are small flocks of Olive-Backed Sunbirds high in the Madre de Cacao flowers, Chestnut Munias in the grassy areas, and jewel toned Bee-eaters on low branches.

The Malabulak trees produced buds! Last year we saw only one bud that didn’t even become a flower. Tonji thinks next year will be a great year for the Malabulak.

The hot days of summer are fast approaching. All to soon it will be time to say goodbye to the cool weather and hello summer and summer projects!