Our visit started of not so great — I was upset because Ollie rolled in horse poop two times and Tonji was upset because of farm tasks that hadn’t been accomplished.
Then
Then things got better
Going outside for a walk with a camera, binoculars, and (now clean) dogs is a sure way to make things better. The grass rustling underfoot and the birds singing in the trees is instantly uplifting!
Collared KingfisherStripe headed RhabdornisLesser Coucal posing with guava fruitWhite-breasted Waterhen
I also saw the Orioles, Pygmy Woodpeckers, Coppersmith Barbet, and more!
Then things got even better
I always expect something good from the Big Pond. This time, it exceeded my expectations! To get to the pond from the cottage, you cross a bridge then walk up a short but steep incline, then end up on top of the bank of the Big Pond. This is my usual viewing area. I am at one end of the pond and the ducks are at the other end.
This time I had to stop before I reached the top of the bank because there were so many ducks in the pond! There were ducks swimming right below the area where I would usually stand! This was the closest I had even been to the ducks in the refuge.
I didn’t want to scare the ducks away, so I stayed just halfway up the incline and waited for the ducks to swim into view, and took pictures from there. I was so happy with the pictures!
The following morning Tonji took drone footage of the Big Pond and counted the ducks. The number we had in July was 47 ducks. Our guess before going through the drone footage was at least 80 ducks. And the count from the drone footage was .. 136 ducks!
And it was all magic!
We were feeling elated and and high from seeing all the ducks and even a bayawak in the Big Pond. It had all worked so well that day — the pond, the ducks, the drone! And then, there was one more surprise for us. When night fell, the fireflies came out and put on a magical show at our Firefly tree!
July was an interesting month. We visited the farm while there was a typhoon or tropical depression far away in the north. Of course there was a lot of rain! Even with all the rain, there was still so much to see and enjoy.
Philippine Ducks
The ducks were flying back and forth and all around. We guessed they were going from the Big Pond to the Water Lily Pond, and possibly other areas in the refuge. All the rain has filled up the smaller ponds. There are now many spots for the ducks to swim in! Tonji counted 47 ducks in the Big Pond.
The Big Pond
Weird Hybrid Duck
Our strange visitor is still around. I wonder how long he plans to stay?
Water Lily Pond
The Water Lily Pond is still going strong! All the plants make this an enchanting place to visit.
Other Pond Denizens
The pond’s cast of characters continues to grow! In the past, we would usually see Black Crowned Night Herons flying overhead. This time we saw one perched!
Black Crowned Night Heron
We are wondering if this is the same Purple Heron that we would see in the Picnic Area back in the early days. It’s nice to see it by the water!
Purple Heron
This Month’s Exciting Moment for Us as Birdwatchers
We have a picture of an Asian Koel! If you have an Asian Koel in your area, you probably know about it from its call. Their calls are very loud, even scandalously loud. Their call starts off normally, then gets louder and higher in pitch and intensity and sounds like someone in the throes of unrestrained passionate ecstasy. They manage to do all this while remaining mostly hidden and difficult to spot.
We were surprised to see one out in the open. I assumed it was a crow, but Tonji told me to take pics because it was hopping around like a Koel, not a crow!
note the red eye!
On a side note, I saw Koels in a golf course outside Bangkok and they were easy to see. Or maybe I was just lucky or my caddie was a good birdwatcher.
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!
This is how deep the pond could be!
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 beetlePasyonaryang Mabahobird tracks!The Water Lily Pond
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.
time to plant!the waterplants were propagated at home in Alabang2 lotus plants from Ixi an MikeliWe had several hundred seedlings. A lot of Malabulak that I planted from seeds from our own trees!
We have enjoyed all the ponds we built at our refuge. We have learned so much from each one. We saw that we have the right type of soil for holding water, that the birds enjoy even the small ponds, and that water plants help make the pond come more alive.
Each succeeding pond we built has been bigger than the previous one! We learned that a bigger and deeper pond has a better chance of holding water all year round, attracts more birds, and is a nicer place to watch birds.
We decided to make our biggest pond yet! There were two big ponds that served as inspiration for this big pond idea:
1). The man-made pond in Saud Resort in Ilocos Norte It is a very big pond right by the entrance of a beach resort. It is where we had our best views of Philippine Ducks, plus photos of rare migrant birds! We visited this pond many times over the years for bird photography. During one visit, I got sick and had a fever and was still able to easily walk to the pond, pull up a chair and take photos of birds. It was that easy to get to the pond! I loved how the birds appeared very comfortable and relaxed in this pond. This is also where we saw Philippine Ducks perched on a tree!
2) The Small Water Impounding Project (SWIP) in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte Unlike the pond in Saud, we never visited this site. We just saw it on YouTube. What we liked about it is that how they said that the area and their lives changed for the better because of the SWIP. Their deep wells that were dried up had water again, they earned more because they could plant more, they enjoyed visiting the SWIP because it was pleasant and beautiful, and they saw more birds! Their SWIP though has big fish which are not good if you want to have a lot of frogs, dragonflies, and other creatures.
We realized that to turn inspiration into reality, we would have to bring in big equipment plus people to run the equipment. It would be a much bigger expense than building it ourselves but we would save a lot on time. Once we were decided that we wanted to go through with this project, things started moving quickly! We were able to find a contractor with a lot of experience building the type of pond commonly used for fish and rice farming with earth walls called pilapil. He was also familiar with SWIPs. Our pond would have the same type of construction, but we would make it look natural.
The first step was to clear the site of the shrubs, aroma, and madre de cacao so we could decide on the final boundaries of the pond. The final size of the pond depends on the budget and the site. Of course I wanted it as big as possible! The cleared area is less than one hectare. It is about 50sqm x 175 sqm. We will extend it further out and also make a road to the cottage.
this was mostly shrubs and weedsmeasuringthe road to the cottage
Our promising start got stalled by rain. Work had to stop for most of the month. The newly cleared area got covered in new growth!
look at those vines growing on the groundthe test hole has waterno work ongoing
There was no progress on the pond project. We had to wait until the rain stopped and the ground dried up enough for the heavy equipment to be operated.
All the rain was good for the other parts of the refuge. There were fruits and flowers in some native trees.
Bagras flowersPiling LiitanPiling LiitanBankal fruita row of Bangkal
The water lily ponds had more water. The water reached the “extension area” where Tonji widened the pond. The water lily pond is a good place to see Island Collared Doves and Spotted Doves. The Island Collared Doves are more shy.
the widened areaIsland Collared DoveCollared KingfisherSpotted DoveIsland Collared Dove
The U-shaped pond that Tonji was working on in February has water now. There was still work to be done on that pond, but that will be on hold for now.
It’s also nice to just sit in the veranda and enjoy the cool breezes and the birds. I am still amazed at how many birds we get to see from the comfort of the veranda!
Pacific Swallowsdoing aerial acrobaticsPygmy Flowerpecker with a ripe aratilesFlying aratiles!
The rains turned even the roads into mini ponds. We saw a Barred Rail bathing in a puddle on the road.
iPhone photo!
When the weather clears up, we will continue building the big pond. It is exciting to see the transformation of an area that was weedy, uninteresting, and difficult to access into a rich habitat for all sorts of wildlife!
Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge 