red-banded hairstreak.
Tiny mushrooms
Wildflowers at Burke Lake
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The internet here has been so slow the last few days that I haven't been able to put up the stories that I would like. Last night took 1.5 hours just to get one picture up before I gave up. Tonight things seem a bit better so I am going to try and show some pics from today's adventure at the Kuris Pit entrance to the Black Cave (Simud Putih). First thing we did was head over to the cave area and pack up all our camera, video and vertical gear. This entrance leads to a catwalk used by the nesters who collect the bird nests, and we weren't sure what we would find but we were sure there was an 85-meter sheer drop at the lip of the pit. 
An awesome butterfly along the trail
We reached the entrance and had a very nice view. The first part is the protected buffer forest around the caves, which is a bit over 3,000 hectares. Beyond that are oil palm plantations on most everything except the other steep hills. 
A view of lowland Borneo
To get in the entrance, we had to go through the guard hut. These guys protect the bird nests from thieves. 
Nest guards in the kitchen
Just outside there was a hawk-eagle sitting in a tree. I think it is a Wallace's hawk-eagle 
Hawk-eagle hunting
At first, the guard for the entrance we wanted to work in was scared to let us in. For good reason, as he wasn't aware we were coming and wanted some assurance from his boss that this would be okay. After a few phone calls by the surface manager on the hill, it was confirmed that we had permits to enter the cave and so the work began. First up, Guy filming Benjamin as he starts the first laser scan on the entrance. 
Wonderful scenery on the surface above the Kuris entrance to Simud Putih
Manfred clipped in and on the lip of the 85-meter drop. Of note, this is where I was clipped in for a long time taking photos of the work
So they brought the scanner to the lip and ran it. 
Getting ready to make the map scan
Next up, Don McFarlane forged the way down to the catwalk with a short rappel. There was a lot going on at this point. Benjamin was watching the scanner, there was a local with a safety harness attached to a rope to keep an eye on us, the area boss for the entrances in this area was making sure things went well, and then there is Don playing at the top of this big pit 
Don, far right, reaches the catwalk
Taking a break as they move the scanner to the catwalk
The guard shack is right at the cave entrance, and all the metal sheeting is so that any thieves would have to make a lot of noise to get in the cave. So, the scanner is down on the catwalk and they get the scan. 
Discussion going on while scanning from the start of the catwalk
And finally, the crazy mappers took the scanner out the catwalk to get a final scan from around the corner and the last part of the cave we hadn't mapped in this area. Success! 
Getting to the final scanning site on a catwalk way above the floor. In this area the catwalk is a series of four-inch wide boards
After finding all the entrances, we headed back down the hill and into the hortizontal part of the cave to look at things from the bottom of the pit. The idea was to line up what we saw on the surface with what we could see from the bottom. 
A different angle from a shot I put up a yesterday. And, now we get to play "spot the caver." Because these are just test shots, and Guy was wearing a photographer's nightmare dark green, we get to have a fun game. The entrance you can see up high is the same one from Part 1 of Life is the Pits
 A waterfall of golden cockroaches We found one truly amazing site at the bottom of the giant guano pile, a waterfall of cockroaches! The guano pile is so steep that it is just about ready to landslide, which is called the angle of repose. When the cockroaches burrow around in it, the physics changes and it slips downhill. Here on the upper left the roaches are cascading into a giant heap, they then work their way down and to the right, and those are highways of roached heading back up on the right. The video is amazing. 
An easier version of "spot the caver"
Getting late here, so I will end with a butterfly from the visitor's center 
Borneo is for butterfly lovers
A few more shots from this area. I was hoping to be able to ID some of this stuff, but limited luck. I will update IDs if I can work them out later. 
A plume moth in the Pterophoridae family. Looks like the genus Hellinsia, but of that i can't be sure. These are quite common in the area.
This looks like a European skipper (Thymelicus lineola) but am only reasonably sure about this ID. The European skipper in an introduced species that has done well in most of the northeaster US.
And this attractive orb weaver I have no guess at.
A species of spider I saw in the tall grass a couple of times, but am unsure what it is.
A Spotless Lady Beetle (Cycloneda sp.). A very cool little character.
This was a dandy big American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus). Only the head is above water. There was a big hatch of midges coming off the stream, thus it was hunting in the water not by the shore.
Don't know this butterfly with dew on it, but might be a copper. Also can't figure out that shadow on the wing, as it seems like the upper wing in bent over, something I didn't think butterflies could do.
A few more pics from last weekend's trip to Melrose Caverns. Surface stuff mostly. 
A caterpillar that I have no ID on.
A centipede eating a tent caterpillar.
Tiger swallow-tail butterfly
A butterfly at night,
I tried real hard to figure out where this photo is from, but failed. Will update with a location if I can figure it out. And I haven't put up any crazy video links lately, so here is one:
http://www.wimp.com/downhillbiking/ This photo was taken at night, and might be a moth or a butterfly. You decide. Update... And, now that Mr. Wallace has chimed in with a comment, I have posted the answer in the comments section.  Spotted moth or butterfly from Sarawak, Borneo.  This rather striking butterfly is from the Sarawak area of the island of Borneo (the Malaysian side). Borneo has great critters, and I really should put up a lot more pics from this area. But hard to give IDs on such things, as I am not an expert on Borneo invertebrates.
The BCCS is a non-profit corporation that owns some big caves and is all about exploration and conservation of those caves. Which are, for the most part, brutally hard caves to visit. That is, other than Butler Cave, which is a nearly 17-mile cave with mostly big passages from the start. Yes, there are tough bits in Butler Cave, if you want to find them, but the other caves start off hard and can stay that way for hours of caving. These caves are in the Burnsvulle Cove in western Virginia, and all have locked gates. Access is controlled by the BCCS, which has number of expedition weekends every year when the the caves are open to cavers outside of the BCCS, and trips can be organized outside of the expedition weekends. So the caves are open for caving, although protected by controlling access. Most all of my decent photos from this area are on slides, which take time to digitize. But I was there last weekend at the fieldhouse and bonfire. Some recent pics show that. Here are the rest of my shots from the weekend. I wasn't really there to take photos, but took some nonetheless.  Another shot of a butterfly at night  A Katydid on the tall grass  The road in to the BCCS field station.  Caving along Sinking Creek in the downstream section of Butler Cave.  The fieldhouse at dusk  Fieldhouse and bonfire at night. |
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