wildlife pond – Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge

Morning Walk with Momo and Barkley and Ducks

I love to start my mornings at our little sanctuary with a morning walk. It’s one of my favorite things! I cannot go without the essentials — a camera, binoculars, Momo, and Barkley.

What a good dog! Momo is great at sticking close to me!

Our morning walks are a little bit different now that we have 7 ponds scattered around the property. When we had only 4 ponds, we could easily bypass the two areas that had ponds. The new ponds are harder to bypass.

No ducks in this pond! Barkley is staring at the water and wondering if he’s going to go for a swim.

During our walks, I try not to disturb any of the wildlife. But at the same time, I am hoping that the wildlife are getting used to our peaceful, unaggressive presence. We’ve been to a few spots in the Philippines where the birds are decidedly more approachable and less wary of people than in the rest of the country. We are doing what we can so that the same thing happens in our place!

We hope the ducks become more relaxed and at home now that they have more ponds to choose from. It is looking promising so far. When the ducks do get disturbed, we noticed that they now silently fly off. They are no longer calling out in alarm for minutes. More importantly, more of them circle back to the ponds. The next stage in improving their habitat is finding and planting grass or grains that they like to eat.

We are also seeing the ducks in the paths! This is new behavior. I am very glad and relieved to say that Momo and Barkley did not chase the ducks. Whew. I think they were just as surprised as I was to see the ducks on the path. Or maybe my voice control works. I was whisper-shouting “Stop! Stop!”.

This week Tonji was at the veranda when he saw two ducks fly in and almost land in front of the house. They swerved away when they saw him! Could it be that when we’re not at home, the ducks are there? I hope that the wildlife feel that our home is their home!

The Fruits of a Summer’s Labor

This year Tonji spent 21 days building ponds. He started building in February to give himself enough time to get a few ponds in before the start of the rainy season in June. He would have continued building even longer except that we were not able to go the the farm regularly for two months.

The first pond he built was Pond No. 5. It was slow-going and took him 9 days to complete because the area was wet and sticky. In March, we got an unexpected day rainy day and were thrilled to see puddles forming at the bottom of the pond!

pond 6 w dogs — March – Pond No. 5 being inspected by Momo and Barkley

When the real rains came around in June, the pond got filled up half way! It takes a lot of rain to make all the soil settle down and form a waterproof layer that will hold water.

pond 6 half full — June – Pond No. half full!

It was nice to see the pond fill up with water, but had the wildlife discovered the ponds yet? Were the Philippine Ducks using it? Did they know that they now had seven ponds at their disposal? We inspected the pond for signs of life. We found lots of small feathers around the pond edge!

This month we’ve resumed our regular farm visits and are thrilled with the results from the pond building! We’ve been having the most amazing views of Philippine Ducks!

If you look closely, you can see water drops on the duck’s chest. They probably came from the pond!

I also had a wish fulfilled. I was finally able to take the photo I’ve been dreaming of — a Philippine Duck standing by one of our ponds!

And even better, there were TWO of them! There may have been more ducks in Pond No. 5, but we didn’t want to disturb them by going closer. So all of us including Momo and Barkley walked away quietly and left the ducks to enjoy their pond.

That same morning we inspected Pond No. 7 and seven Philippine Ducks flew out of the pond. This pond took ten days to build.

The smallest of the three new ponds is Pond No. 6. It took only two days to build and we’ve also seen ducks in it!

It is so gratifying and encouraging to see our projects working! It’s a thrill to be able to share our space with wildlife.

Let There Be Ponds!

We are harnessing the power of water to restore, rehabilitate, and rejuvenate our property and make it more attractive to wildlife. One way to do this is to make a lot of ponds! The ponds catch and store rainwater so it can be used by plants and animals instead of just running off the land. We don’t use pond liners so that the water can eventually sink into the water table to recharge it.

We are making all sorts of ponds and trying different pond building techniques.

Our very first pond was built in February 2015. It’s our biggest and deepest pond. It was build by hand by 6 people. We wanted Pond No. 1 to be deep so it would hold more water for a longer time The deepest section is two meters deep.

The workers also built two smaller ponds near Pond No. 1. We learned from these smaller ponds that even smaller ponds can hold water for a long time. It’s not that necessary to make the ponds very deep.

In 2016 Tonji decided that he wanted to build the ponds himself. We bought a small backhoe. He built Pond #4 in March 2016. This pond has a small island in the center. It was very popular with the ducks last year! This pond was later renamed Secret Pond.

In 2017 we didn’t build any ponds. Tonji did some pond maintenance and enlarged Pond No. 3.

This year Tonji completed two ponds and is working on a third! It took him 9 days to build Pond No. 5. This pond has a back “wall” made up of mounded dirt that is supposed to hold water and add depth to the pond. At the other end it tapers out to a shallow overflow area. Tonji thinks his backhoe is equivalent to 4 men digging. This pond was finished quickly with the help of workers to move the dirt out and finish the sides by hand. This pond was later renamed Owl Pond.

First he clears the grass with the grass cutter

Oops, stop digging while Barkely inspects the work!

Pond No. 6 took only two days to build! It is a small pond that Tonji hopes will provide water for the trees growing by the side. This pond was later renamed Picnic Pond.

Pond No. 6 or Picnic Pond almost finished, will be tapered by hand

Pond No. 7 is still under construction. Tonji says this is going to be a big pond. This pond was later renamed Faraway Pond.

_E7A7141 — Tonji’s companion while digging for 3 days!

Pond Stats:

Pond No. 1
built from 25 Feb 2015 to 27 March 2015
current dimension: 17m x 8 m

Pond No. 2
built 2015
did not measure

Pond No. 3 (in 2019 Tonji said he doesn’t really count this as a pond)
built 2015
current dimension: 7m x 4m

Pond No. 4 (now called Secret Pond)
built March 2016
did not measure

Pond No. 5 (now called Owl Pond)
built February 2018 in 9 days
current dimension: 7m x 10m

Pond No. 6 (now called Picnic Pond)
built March 2018 in 2 days
current dimension: 6m x 5m

Pond No. 7 (now called Faraway Pond)
started March 2018
still under construction

note: in 2019 we renamed the ponds. We retained the names of Pond #1 and Pond #2. The rest were renamed because I could not keep track of which pond was which!

Duck Island!

We usually keep away from the ponds to encourage the ducks and other wildlife to stay there. When there’s a real need to visit the pond, all of us including Momo and Barkley hop into the golf cart to check out the pond together.

We were going to set up the trail camera at Pond No. 4 for the first time. We drove up to the pond slowly and quietly, staying on the path so we wouldn’t startle the birds. When we reached the pond, we saw two Philippine Ducks standing on an island in the middle of the pond! Continue reading “Duck Island!”