  We study numerically the properties of local low-energy excitations in the
two-dimensional Ising spin glass. Given the ground state, we determine the
lowest-lying connected cluster of flipped spins containing one given spin,
either with a fixed volume, or with a volume constrained to lie in a certain
range. Our aim is to understand corrections to the scaling predicted by the
droplet picture of spin glasses and to resolve contradictory results reported
in the literature for the stiffness exponent. We find no clear trace of
corrections to scaling, and the obtained stiffness exponent is in relatively
good agreement with standard domain wall calculations.
