Autumn leaf butterfly

As my motorbike is poorly, I decided to pay a visit to the grove and see what is happening. The crops are growing strong, but the ground between the plants is still bare soil, which meant that I soon ended up with platform flip-flops with two inch soles. The compact tufts of weeds that were dumped on the compost heap have actually started to flourish rather than dying off, as I had hoped, as a result the creeping foxglove is gone, as too are all the insects that it attracted.

There were stunning butterflies in attendance. I almost got a side shot of the green swallowtail previously blipped 1st November, but it wasn't to be. Some very exotic butterflies flew past, coming from the stream area, but they did not stop to pose for me. I need to find a stream side location if I am going to have any chance of capturing them.

The blipped leaf butterfly was most impressive. As well as the blipped side view, I also captured a splendid top view, which was my intended blip. I flicked through my past blips and discovered that it had already featured 2nd December (same day as mouse problem started, see text). It is worth looking back just to see the contrast between the A and B sides of this magnificent creature.

The mouse part 2 - Continued from yesterday.

The first thought was a chemical solution, but the last thing I want is to discover a semi decomposed ex-mouse in the future, not to mention the associated smell, as I am sure the little monster has built a nest, if not in this room then in the house somewhere, plus, I have seen these poison traps before and do not think that they work. The solution had to be a trap of some sorts and the first job was to find out what was available on the market.

I visited the hardware store to purchase a mouse trap, none of this eco friendly shit, I wanted to see blood. Asking the proprietor for a mouse trap, he stared at me blankly, here we go again with the language communication problem. I looked at my two handfuls of fingers and could not think of a suitable charades impersonation of a mouse or a trap, so I grabbed the receipt book and pen off the counter.

I sketched out a mouse trap but the blank looks prevailed, looking at my inadequate sketch it was hardly surprising. How the hell do you draw a mouse! It's all about features, a body, pointy head, a few whiskers and a long tail. Ahhh, the now assembled crowd exclaimed excitedly in unison. They all had a jabber and came back to me with 'tidak ada', which is Indonesian speak for nada.

I am an engineer, a design engineer in fact and I have a whole workshop of tools and materials downstairs, how difficult can this be. I scanned the workshop for available materials and had a long lie down, The design process has begun.

My first attempt at the mouse trap was the old propped up container ploy with bait tied to the prop. For the bait, I used a piece of uncooked noodles, as I know the mouse likes these, judging from all the holes in my stash of instant meal packets. As you can gather from the first sentence, the plan was not successful. The trap functioned, as it was triggered three times during the night.

Although inherently unstable, I am confident that it did not fall by itself. The problem was that the container falls far too slowly to trap such a crafty critter. This was a very rudimentary, indeed lazy attempt at a mouse trap, obviously I need to take the task in hand a lot more seriously. So back to the drawing board for a lie down.

To be continued.

Update - Identification - autumn leaf, Doleschallia bisaltide

Dave