water lily – 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!

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!

September to December 2022 – Covid, Water Lilies, New Pond, and Glamping!

September 2022

We went to the refuge for the day. I planted more water lilies and then I came down with long Covid! I had rashes all over my face and body. The next day my joints were swollen and painful.

Here I am admiring the water lilies! The newly planted ones are at the further end of the pond.

These are the things I’ve planted in the pond:

Nymphaea tina – tropical water lily with purple flowers
Nymphaea daubenyana – tropical water lily with light blue flowers
Nymphaea colorado -hardy water lily with peach flowers
Nymphoides indica – tropical water lily, native to the Philippines, aka Snowflake water lily
umbrella plants
papyrus
sagittaria – has white flowers that the bees like!
mosaic plant

October 2022

Tonji is starting a new pond! This one is in my former riding area, where we have what we call the “secret pond”. It’s a secret because it is small and hidden by a lot of plants. It had a tiny island and was popular with the birds. However it got overgrown with plants. The new pond will be bigger, deeper, and U-shaped.

And this is what I think the pond will look like!

Monica and Kristian got to try out the new “glamping” set up! Kristian said it was very nice and was the best tent experience ever!

I am enjoying having the water plants in the ponds. I love to go and see how the plants are doing, especially since they are thriving at the pond! They are growing so much bigger than the plants at home. I cannot check the ponds without couple of dogs going in for a swim!

Momo and Ollie love to swim in the ponds.

December 2022

We missed the entire November and managed to squeeze in a trip for the New Year’s eve weekend! It was our first time to spend New Year’s Eve at the refuge. The water lilies are amazingly beautiful! I planted even more of them!

It looks like a Monet painting!

I got to use my Burley trailer at the refuge. It has removable front wheels so that it can be used as an off road stroller. Barkley is blind now and I have been carrying him so that he join our walks. The front harness I was using was better than carrying him in my arms. This Burley trailer is even better than the harness because it’s so easy to pop him in and out of the trailer. It also rolls so amazingly well through the grass! It’s much less tiring than carrying him plus my camera and binoculars. It can easily fit Barkley, Momo, and my camera. It’s amazing!

It’s great that we are getting back into our groove and working on our refuge projects! Here’s a Mangkono flower looking very festive!

I will do monthly posts for 2023. I plan to keep up this blog. I think it’s a good way to keep track of all the things we are doing at the refuge.