photography – Page 2 – Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge

October 2024 – New Bird Species,Yay!

Finally, a new bird for the refuge! We had two female Northern Pintails in the Big Pond! This brings us to 108 bird species in the refuge.

EDIT: I forgot that Tonji photographed a Green Sandpiper in March 2024. This is our 2nd new bird for 2024!

The last time we say a new bird species at the refuge was almost a year before in November 2023. Our visits to the refuge this year have been very few and very short. That’s probably why we haven’t seen new birds this year. So right after a big typhoon hit the Philippines in October, we hurried to the refuge to look for any migrant birds that may have been blown in by the typhoon.

We were excited to visit the Big Pond. The week before, our caretakers had counted 65 Philippine ducks at the Big Pond. This was a record number for our refuge.

The thought of that many ducks at our pond was just mind boggling. We had to see it. Tonji suggested that we wear our camouflage ghillie capes and crawl up one side of the pond so we could get close without spooking the ducks.

yes I am whispering and we have ghillie capes

The crawling and camouflage worked! We were able to watch the ducks swim back and forth right in front of us!

Philippine Ducks in the Big Pond, iPhone video

My camera fogged up. Good thing Tonji had nice pictures!

Later that day, Tonji flew the new drone to the Big Pond. It was much easier to survey the pond via drone. No crawling necessary! After checking the drone video, our final count for the Big Pond is 83 Philippine Ducks plus 2 Northern Pintails.

Music: Purple Planet Music. We are still getting the hang of shooting drone videos and editing them!

The Philippine Ducks and Northern Pintails were the stars of October. We also had 7 Purple Herons flying from the Big Pond to the Water Lily Pond. We used to only see 1 Purple Heron. There was also a White Breasted Waterhen at the Big Pond abd more than 30 Red Turtle Doves in the bamboos near the Big Pond. By the cottage there were more than 20 Pink Necked Green Pigeons flying around from tree to tree and Oriental Pratincoles flying overhead.

Oriental Pratincole in flight — Oriental Pratincole

September 2024 – Leveling Up!

Every visit to the refuge, no matter how brief, is food for the soul. The things we get to see and experience bring us so much satisfaction and make us want to return again and again. It fuels our dreams of even more projects and experiments to do at the refuge.

It is at the refuge where we can go swimming at night under a sky full of stars and the Milky Way! It is magical!

little cottage under the stars – photo by Tonji Ramos

We celebrated Tonji’s birthday at the refuge. As a special birthday treat, a Colasisi posed nicely for him in an Aratiles tree. We have been seeing the Colasisi regularly, but this is a particularly good view with all of its bright colors clearly visible.

The Bangkal trees have fruits! Seeing these fruits brought back memories of one of our birding trips to Sablayan Penal Colony in Mindoro. There were many Bangkal trees and the fruits were scattered on the ground. That trip to Mindoro gave us the idea of planting Bangkal trees. Now we have our own row of Bangkal trees with fruits!

The Bagras or Rainbow Eucalyptus tree near the cottage is getting taller and taller. It’s a good thing it has a few flowering branches near the ground. The trunk is becoming more colorful. Not quite rainbow-like yet though!

Every time we visit the refuge we always wonder — what are the ducks up to now? We think about them even when we’re not at the refuge. It is a short walk from the cottage to the Big Pond. There’s a path through the trees, then a dirt road that goes over some water, then you need to scramble up to top of the pond wall before you can see the pond. There is a lot of anticipation during that short walk. What will we see?

Feels like Candaba! video by Tonji Ramos

The Big Pond has leveled up! We are seeing a whole new level of wildlife activity at the pond. We are now at Level 4 wildlife activity!

Note: These are not actual scientific levels! This is purely based what we’ve experienced as birdwatchers!

TONJI AND SYLVIA’S POND WILDLIFE ACTIVITY LEVELS

LEVEL 1 – See ducks in the farm/refuge
At this level, you are happy that you saw an actual wild duck in your airspace because this means that there is a good chance that the pond you built attracted ducks to your place.

LEVEL 2 -See ducks swimming
You were able to confirm that the ducks are using your pond. You saw them swimming!

LEVEL 3 – See ducks swimming and not flying away when you approach
This level can be hard to achieve if your pond is small or difficult to access. It will be easier to achieve this level by designing your pond so that the ducks feel safe enough to stay in the pond even in disturbed.

LEVEL 4 – See multiple groups of ducks flying overhead, criss-crossing in the air, landing, swimming, and taking off all at the same time!
We are at this level now! This is what we used to experience in a very large scale, back in the day when we used to go to Candaba Wetlands. Sadly, those wetlands are now farmlands. This is a much, much smaller scale than Candaba was, but it is still quite satisfying and has a lot of potential!

LEVEL 5 – THIS LEVEL IS STILL LOCKED! Baby ducks
This level will be unlocked when you see baby ducks swimming in the pond. I have never seen baby Philippine Ducks swimming. I believe I’ve only seen them one time, and they were walking.

LEVEL 6 – THIS LEVEL IS STILL LOCKED! Attracting rare migrants
This is the dream level. This level will be unlocked when all the bird activity and plants have made the pond look so inviting that migrating ducks use the pond as a stopover and refueling station!

Here’s to unlocking more levels!

Nearing 50 Ducks!

2024 is shaping up to be an exciting year for our refuge!

JANUARY

Ducks in the Big Pond

First time to see Philippine Ducks in the Big Pond! Tonji saw 15 Philippine Ducks swimming in the Big Pond. We knew it was just a matter of time until the ducks discovered the Big Pond. In the meantime, we were trying to make the Big Pond as attractive to the ducks as we could by planting water plants and minimizing the human activity in the area. It was so satisfying to finally see the Philippine Ducks at the pond!

We were even able to show the ducks to friends and family that visited the refuge.

FEBRUARY

In February we had more visitors to the refuge. We started plans on upgrading our glamping set-up to make it easier to have visitors. We met up with the building crew to discuss the new guest house and they were all agog about seeing so many ducks! How many ducks? They couldn’t really say. Maybe 20, maybe 40. The building crew were in the refuge early in the morning when they saw many ducks fly out of the Big Pond, circle overhead, then land back in the Big Pond. We were very happy and excited to hear that there were many ducks, even if we didn’t know how many. And even better news was that they appeared intent on staying in the Big Pond.

MARCH

In March we started keeping track of the number of Philippine Ducks in the refuge. There is a big group that stays in the Big Pond and 2 ducks that appear to stay in the Water Lily Pond.

We started keeping track on March 3 and had 32 ducks. That’s 12 more than our highest previous count of 20 Philippine ducks in the Water Lily pond in November 2023. Our new highest count is 43 ducks in the Big Pond on March 8 and March 26. If we assume that the pair of ducks in the Water Lily Pond do not go to the Big Pond, then that makes it a possible 45 Philippine Ducks in the refuge! Almost 50 ducks!!

The ducks like to gather in this corner of the Big Pond

I am looking forward to planting more Typha or bullrushes at the Big Pond. They are supposed to spread and even become weedy, but so far the ones we have planted are looking sparse. We have also planted giant papyrus, dwarf papyrus, water lilies, lotus, and sagittaria. I think the plants make the pond much more attractive to the birds.

New plants

Not duck related — these are seedlings that I am growing at home in Alabang. The seriales Flacourtia jangomas or Governor’s Plum were planted from seeds that I bought on Facebook. The Dao seedlings are from seeds we picked up while walking the dogs in Alabang.

New bird!

Tonji photographed a Green Sandpiper! That makes it 108 species for the refuge. Photos and details to follow.

Birds of July, August, and September

Our star birds for this period were definitely the Philippine Ducks and the Grass Owls. But, there were other birds too! Here are some of the other birds that we observed. Continue reading “Birds of July, August, and September”