Swamp Creatures

Here's a few swamp creatures for #amazingnature and #featheredfriends

I went to visit the local marsh and found that it was completely covered in tiny green water plants. These turtles crawled out of the muck mostly covered in the tiny green leaves hoping to catch some sun rays.

This smaller turtle was closer to shore. It looks like a painted turtle.

The frogs were looking nice and camouflage in the layer of green on top of the water.

These tiny little green leaves are known as duckweed. From a distance it looks like a bunch of algae but in fact it is thousands of tiny little leaves floating on the surface of the water. I am not sure if the tiny white flower is part of the duckweed or if it is a different water plant that is blooming.

Here's a bigger patch of the tiny white flowers off in the distance on the lake.

True to its name the duckweed has attracted a mallard who is foraging off of it.

The mallard looks pretty happy pigging out on all this duckweed.

While I was taking pictures the mallard decided to jump up on the floating dock next to me. I think he though I might of had some treats for him. He looks pretty ridiculous with all the duckweed covering his face and breast.

The duck was quite tame and barely waddled out of my way when I passed by him on the dock.

I finally spotted a family of wood ducks way off in the distance feasting on the duckweed. I wish these wood ducks weren't so shy. They always stay far away from humans.