The Australian Canopy Crane - Wicked!!!
I went on a pre-conference field trip to the canopy crane up in North Queensland near Cape Tribulation. What a spectacular experience it was. I got to see a stinging tree (full of red berries as seen below) which apparently leaves you in mega pain for at least a month post attack... not fun from what I hear! From the crane we could hone in on all sorts of cool stuff like the incredible epiphytes - staghorn ferns, birdsnest ferns, etc., insect trapping tents, and even green ant nests - which apparently aren't very pleasant if you get too close... luckily we had our skilled canopy operator, Richard. The whole crane team were great people - Romina ( who has a very cool pet ?spotted python), Brad, and Michael. I have to say that the canopy crane was just awesome... I'm jealous of people that get to spend a lot of time checking all that life out up there. Also hard to imagine that they have 80 tree species within the span of the crane!
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