Canopy Tower Update - March 1998

Most of march was spent repairing the wooden bridge which crosses the stream Quebrada Masambi Grande on the way to the Canopy Tower. Its foundations were full of termites, in spanish we call it "comejen blanco", it's a miracle it had not collapsed before. These termites are voracious, they can eat the hardest wood as if it were butter. I was just going to paint the bridge when I discovered the termites!! Consequently, I had to change all the wooden columns with steel columns constructed from steel I took from the Tower. This is a good example of the recycling I have done in the Tower.
March, was, in addition to bridge-repair-month, the month when most of the raptors migrating north passed by the Tower. We saw literally thousands of Swainson's and Broad-Winged Hawks, Mississipi Kites, Turkey Vultures fly over us on their way north. We also received the visit of Dr.and Mrs. Sidney Gauthreaux, a world authority on the study of raptor migration using radars. He and his wife spent several hours in the Tower looking at the amazing natural phenomenon of bird migration. He'll be back for the fall migration. We in the Canopy Tower are committed to participate in a long term study to identify the number of individuals and the number of species of raptors which fly over Panama twice a year in their annual migration.

This picture shows the replacement of the wooden columns with steel columns. First we installed steel rods used in construction and held up the bridge. Then we took away the wooden columns and installed the ones made of steel. Sounds easy but it was not! Thanks God we did everything without a hitch.