Honey Dew

The southern beech forests of New Zealand are home to a unique resource - honey dew. It is produced by tiny scale insects that live in the bark of beech trees and feed on the sugar the leaves produce to supply energy to the roots.. The insects are very simple - basically just mouth parts  with a very long anal tube , which is the bit you can see protruding as a thin filament from the tree.   ( I bet you really didn't  want to know that.) There is often  a drop of sweet sugary honey dew on the end which is excess sugar to the insects requirements. This is a very valuable  food for nectar feeding birds and insects and unfortunately is also highly desired by wasps.

I have often tried to capture a drop of honey dew but without much luck. It is dark in the bush with no place for a tripod, and the honey dew drop quivers with every slight movement. This is the best I have done so far and there is still a lot of room for improvement. At least one drop was reasonably sharp.