Bryan Pfeiffer

Montpelier

Contributor at BirdNote

Writer at Chasing Nature

Contributor at Freelance

Writer at Irrational Fear

Field biologist, writer, aspiring botanist, fledgling geezer, boy explorer. (Owned by an English shepherd named Odin.)

Featured in: Favicon

birdnote.org Favicon

bostonglobe.com Favicon

substack.com (+5) Favicon

aeon.co

audubon.org Favicon

burlingtonfreepress.com Favicon

sevendaysvt.com Favicon

physicianspractice.com Favicon

djournal.com Favicon

auburnpub.com + 6 more

Articles

A Woodpecker’s Revenge

6 days ago | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer

IN THIS ERA of lies and hyperbole, here is a bird truly worthy of its superlatives: robust, dazzling, theatrical.
Trade Wars and Spring Wildflowers

3 weeks ago | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer

IN THE naked woods of April, you will find neither tariffs nor turmoil — only grace and renewal. Spring-beauties emerge to bloom hot pink from last autumn's fallen leaves. The flowers of Hepatica are soft pastels of blue, lilac, or cream. And the Bloodroot: well, the Bloodroot is immune to the blood sport of commerce and politics. The world economy, we are told, is in upheaval owing to men in power with ideas about money and free markets. Stock prices swing. People profit. People suffer.
The Vulture's Memoir

1 month ago | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer

Greetings, readers: Here’s my contribution to an evening of poetry, verse, and music celebrating National Poetry Month and Poem City here in Montpelier, Vermont, a few days ago. Also, please scroll onward to the spring beauties below and my note to Chasing Nature’s paying subscribers. Thanks!GRANTED, I’m not an early bird. I sleep through the confetti of warblers at dawn, and then doze with one eye open to the humans below me going about their rituals.
The Roast Penguin Chronicles

1 month ago | jasonanthony.substack.com | Jason Anthony |Bryan Pfeiffer

Hello everyone:The Field Guide is taking the week off so that I can bring you some good news: My book, The Roast Penguin Chronicles, has just launched from Compass Rose Press. It’s part memoir, part history of the human experience of Antarctica through a “culinary” lens. The book is built from a century of remarkable stories of life on the ice, from the sagas of early exploration up through the 20th century and recent years, including my own near-decade on the ice.
The Relegation of Nature Writing

1 month ago | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer |Bill Davison |Mk Creel |Bill McKibben

IT HAPPENED sometime after the Barred Owl called out to its mate, but before the Silver Maple erupted into crimson fireworks. On that day, one of you clicked a button on your glowing screen and became Chasing Nature’s 10,000th subscriber. Although I myself can herald this milestone with gratitude (and announcements for you below), the natural world, if it could, would probably shrug off 10,000 of anything.
The Problem with Butterflies

1 month ago | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer

THEIR BEAUTY AND GRACE alone would seem to warrant at least some measure of loyalty and reciprocity on our part. And that is to say nothing of how they’ve become iconic in our culture — from poetry to jewelry, spirituality to tattoos. So by now you’d think we would have found a way to get along with butterflies. Nope, sorry. Despite their glitter and charisma, we humans are destroying butterflies in far too many places — and therefore making the world less beautiful and less interesting.
First in Flower

2 months ago | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer

A Note from Bryan: Because I’m out of action owing to successful knee surgery on Monday, here from the archives is a timely and updated dispatch that most of my readers have not seen, and which makes me happy because even while enduring severe post-operative pain I can nonetheless bring you vernal opportunity. FOR MANY OF US, the earliest hints of spring are not green — they are red. Maple trees are breaking out in explosions of crimson flowers. Flowers? Where are the petals in those images above?
"Running Talus" Revisited

2 months ago | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer

Although this essay is more personal than usual here at Chasing Nature, I believe it has universal relevance (even for those of you who don’t run wild in mountains). HALF A CENTURY AGO, as a 17-year-old boy, which is to say a fairly naive lump of flesh, I lived to touch rock and defy gravity. Before I knew much of anything about the world or gained any genuine sense of myself, I was a mountaineer.
Lies and Light

Feb 11, 2025 | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer

DISHONESTY has been in the news of late. And yet long before humans arrived on the scene to tell them, lies have been a way of life on Earth. Opossums feign death to trick predators. Caterpillars can resemble anything from snakes to twigs to bird shit. And certain plants look like rotting flesh, attracting flies that become unwitting pollinators. Fraud in nature is evolution in action — wild things doing whatever to get by in the struggle for existence.
A Butterfly is a Place

Feb 3, 2025 | chasingnature.substack.com | Bryan Pfeiffer

LET’S BE HONEST about the genus Callophrys: with a few green exceptions, these aren’t exactly charismatic butterflies. Known as elfins and green hairstreaks, Callophrys (kah-LOW-fris) butterflies perch with their wings folded closed above their bodies, at which point they become about the size of a penny — and only somewhat more ornate. The Callophrys have never inspired much poetry or gained any traction on social media. They’ve not been a cause célèbre of demonstrations or protest marches.

Contact details

Emails

[email protected]

Socials & Sites

Try JournoFinder For Free

Search and contact over 1M+ journalist profiles, browse 100M+ articles, and unlock powerful PR tools.

Start Your 7-Day Free Trial →

X (formerly Twitter)

Followers: 652
Tweets: 499
DMs Open: No

Bryan Pfeiffer @BryanPfeiffer

26 Jun 23

A little brown butterfly and an exuberant biologist (me) make the front page of The Boston Globe online today. #lepidoptera #butterfly #nature #vermont https://t.co/JfnVlB7sHu via @BostonGlobe

Bryan Pfeiffer @BryanPfeiffer

12 Feb 23

For birdwatchers and botanists, for biologists and naturalists of any kind, my online photography seminar launches March 1: https://t.co/e5q0k72UOQ #birding #naturephotography #nature #inaturalist #botany #wildlifephotography https://t.co/gRriNNmyIA

Bryan Pfeiffer @BryanPfeiffer

30 Dec 22

A sedge, a ruse and a butterfly. Read all about them: https://t.co/Zsysmh97Nd #botany #lepidoptera #butterfly #macrophotography #nature https://t.co/2nvH02Dpii

Bryan Pfeiffer

Articles

A Woodpecker’s Revenge

Trade Wars and Spring Wildflowers

The Vulture's Memoir

The Roast Penguin Chronicles

The Relegation of Nature Writing

The Problem with Butterflies

First in Flower

"Running Talus" Revisited

Lies and Light

A Butterfly is a Place

Contact details

Emails

Socials & Sites

X (formerly Twitter)