45 Comments
User's avatar
Deborah Howe's avatar

Congratulations on your thrilling find!!

Bryan Pfeiffer's avatar

Thanks, Deborah! I hope you've got a thrilling discovery in your future!

Carrie's avatar

Thank you for this. I really needed to learn about and be able to focus my attention on one of natures' tiny miracles this morning as a balm for what feels like the wholesale destruction of everything good around us. I send out a wish that every human will understand, consider and yearn to protect every last droplet.

Bruce Horwith's avatar

In the past I have always been surprised and delighted by your articles, but apparently you have now joined the mindless hordes obsessively proclaiming every little detail of the latest public celebrity -- the eastern dwarf mistletoe. Have you no shame? (🤣)

Bryan Pfeiffer's avatar

Ha! Yeah, no shame in parasites, Bruce! 🤣

John Snell's avatar

All of this life—as huge as redwoods or blue whale or as impossibly small as your drop or even so small as to be invisible seen under a 7-power lens—ALL of it powered by the sun, ALL of it just friggin' amazing. Thank you for continuing to Chase Nature and bring us along for the hike.

Bryan Pfeiffer's avatar

And none better than you, John, at discovering and photographing the grace in water and light and so many other ordinary and extraordinary things in nature!

Janis Adler's avatar

OMG, I was waiting with baited breath for the droplets myself (though I could only really see them - or it - in the first photograph). So glad you have Josh to bog stomp with.

Bryan Pfeiffer's avatar

Thanks, Janis! So in that final droplet image at the end of the essay, zoom in and look at the tips of each of the two shoots for the most tiny translucent droplets. There's another one about halfway along the lower side of the left shoot! (Wish you were here with me and Diane a couple weeks ago!)

Susan J Hilger's avatar

Thank you for this, I love noticing nature

Joh Hadden's avatar

Nice find Bryan & Josh! Love the loooong extended metaphor and can certainly relate!

Bruce Post's avatar

Speaking of droplets, this is my Golden Rule: Dew unto others as they would dew unto you.

Bryan Pfeiffer's avatar

Ha! You know, for the record, I did indeed take note of humidity and dew point that day -- just to be sure these weren't dew drops!

Micki Colbeck's avatar

Bryan,

Love your tenacity and curiosity. I've spent days in the Peacham bogg doing the same.

Bryan Pfeiffer's avatar

I think they're right along the boardwalk there?

Han's avatar

So exciting, congrats Bryan! And this was a lovely read

Carla Gomes's avatar

Perhaps what we all need as humans right now is indeed to focus intently on a tiny little droplet. 🙏

Leah Rampy's avatar

It was fun to be led by your adventurous spirit. Congratulations. May we all seek our nature connections with such joy.

Brian Willson's avatar

Ohhh, yeah.

Margaret Tomlinson's avatar

Congratulations! This is an exciting reminder that there is still much to learn about plants and how they relate to each other.

Debra Morgan's avatar

With any luck they will find a way to combat Eastern Dwarf Mistletoe and their tiny droplets. The parasites are decimating the spruces along our shores in Midcoast Maine, including my own property. It is hard to watch these iconic trees slowing dying in front of us.

Bryan Pfeiffer's avatar

Hi Debra. I'm really sorry to hear this. I've also seen spruce premature death in Maine -- heartbreaking. Are they on White Spruce there? I know the mistletoe can be problematic, but spruce suffer from other pathogens, including Spruce Beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis). I also wonder whether, along the midcoast, where the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than many other waters, if climate is a factor as well?

Deanne Larsen's avatar

All around us, every day, the world is showing up and living and bringing forth natural wonders whether we see them or not. Knowing this is all there is enough; seeing and experiencing them is even more! Thank you for the joy of discovery and appreciation that you share with all of us.