This is my post for #AmazingNature weekly challenge. Its the last week it is running, and the prompt was 'Swamp' (or Bog, or Marsh, which is the same). Thats a nice opportunity to share some of the images I created this summer, since I havent shared all of them yet. So...

It's a strange forest, isn't it? It seems that something is wrong with it! Actually, it is not a forest at all -- it is the trees, growing over the swamp. Or bogs, or marsh - use any name you like it.

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I spent this summer at the village (thanks to C-19 and the fact that I am unemployed since December). Usually I could escape from my office and visit my summer place for 1-2, maximum 3 days, but this summer I spent more than 2 months here in a row. And I had a lot of time to study the area in more detail. This time I had a tripod, two cameras (however, one of them broke at once :) and a whole arsenal of lenses for different occasions. It would be good to place a portrait of me equipped with my lens collection here, but I do not have such a portrait, my wife and daughter rarely photograph me.

So... for more than a dozen years, I have never visited our local swamp! The closest local swamp is a 30 minute walk from our door. My wife and mother-in-law, who know very well about it, have never offered to walk there. I think the reason is that the marshes are considered a terrible negative and of course dangerous place... a haven for scrotum and mosquitoes, snakes, and of course you can drown there. And there is nothing to see in the swamp. Probably, it is true. As there is no doubt, the swamps can be different. I am very glad that I got acquainted with our local marsh - I liked this place very much!! and until summer was over I managed to visit it three times (and use different lenses).

This photo was taken without the help of a drone! (I have no drone). How did I do it? With a small hemp and 16-35mm wide angle lens! I hope it gives a good idea of the landscape around me. Under the moss carpet is quite hard and dry soil, not a treacherous bog.

Look what I saw there.

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mushrooms

First, of course, go the mushrooms. When the sky sends little water to the earth, the swamp turns out to be the wettest place - even if the forest is dry and empty, theres a solid chances some mushrooms to be found on swampy mossy pastures. Second, third and fourth are berries. BERRIES!!!! But let the story rolls in order.

In one of my summer posts I already partially introduced my subscribers to the mushrooms I found in this swamp, it was a post dedicated exclusively to Russulae fungi, but I found much more here, during all 3 times I came here. But the Russulas were very nice and maybe the most spectacular.

Giant mutant cheesecloths, larger than trees! joking: these are ordinary cheesecloths..... they are just small pines, and they will grow for a long time.

There are a lot of unidentified and uninteresting mushrooms. To be more precise, these mushrooms are very interesting, but only for a macro photographer.

That first day I found good edible mushrooms - Xerоcomus subtomentósus. They were grown in one big family on the area of apparently 3 meters, and I gathered all six. These are such beauties! Their caps made a very pleasurable contrast to the green poss they were standing at.

I have to skip good part of my mushroom tropheys, before you get tired, and move on to the next part (there are still a lot of photos ahead!).

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Berries.

I did not expect to meet so many berries in the swamp (the first time I came to reconnaissance and was armed not with a can, but only with a camera). My first thought was to go home, call my wife, push my lazy daughter out of the hammock, hand each of them a three-liter can and drive them all to the swamp with the phrase "And do not come back until you collect 3 liters of berries!

Alas, it was not possible to do so due to a number of reasons (my family is as stubborn as me, hehe)... Nevertheless, the next morning my wife and I, with one 2-liter can (but without my daughter) came to the swamp and quickly collected 2 liters of blueberries. (Then we mixed it with sugar, made jam according to a lazy recipe, and still eat manna porridge and pancakes with blueberry jam, which we collected in summer - we have 3 more jars in the fridge).

Pigeon shattered the bushes in huge quantities! I have never seen such a magnificent spectacle! Gathering her pure pleasure.

The photo above shows a blueberry. It is very similar to blueberries, especially if you see it on a shelf in the supermarket, not on a branch in the forest. One of the Khivians already asked me what is the difference between blueberries and blueberries: blueberries are smaller and more tasty, they have a rich taste, and the color of berries is darker, rather purple and black, and blueberries are blue, more "watery" and less sweet. Visually, blueberry bushes are smaller, and blueberry bushes are taller, they are real dwarf trees, and when you collect blueberries, you have to lean more.

Blueberries grew in the swamp - most likely, this berry is well known to you, by the way it is well distributed and grows not only in the swamp, but in all forests. And it is easy to find in the supermarket. This time, I have not photographed it.

The swamp was quite dry, it was impossible to soak your feet. By the way, I did not notice any mosquitoes or insects at all; the only animal I met was a lizard. and -- yes, I saw one (!) butterfly.

Little lizard. Probably there were others, but in the moss is very easy to hide, I noticed only this one, because it ran from me to a tree, not deep in the moss.

In addition to blueberries, in the swamp grew cowberries, it is a useful, but not very interesting for me berry. We never collect it, because we love other berries more. Lingonberries are more common in northern forests and are not found in the south, and if you plant them specially in the garden, the properties of such berries will be very different than wild cowberries, which grew in the forest. Fresh cowberries can be stored for up to 3 months! (Because it is low in sugar, it does not spoil). It is also perfectly stored in dried form. If you survive in the Third World War, hide and survive in the northern forests, you will need to know which mushrooms are edible and which are not, then be sure to remember about cowberry - it will be an invaluable help in your post-apocalyptic diet.

All bumps were covered with another interesting berry, which some of you do not know: cranberry. It is found only in the swamps, and if you stay away from the swamps, you probably have not seen it grow. This berry ripens in late autumn, in August it is too early to pick it.

The cranberry looks unusual: the plant is almost invisible, it's a thin string of stem, which lies on the pillow of the moss, and tiny leaves are attached to it, and at its end sticking out a huge (relatively string plant) berry... practically, a whole watermelon!

The cranberry looks as if there is no plant - just someone sprinkled these berries on the moss. It was difficult to photograph the Cranberries without a macro lens... but fortunately I had the macro lens with me!

This photo was taken by the "fish eye". Instead of individual berries you see a carpet of cranberries and moss.

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The local bogs have another interesting and very tasty berry, called cloudberry, and some residents of our village collect it in the bogs ... but apparently it does not grow everywhere, but in secret locations, and perhaps it is small and not so common. And I did not dare to inspect all the bogs - I walked a little on the edge, not farther than 50-60 meters from the road. I think that I will risk to do it next year. As a substitute, I will show you a photo from a local bazaar: mushrooms and berries were picked in this very area at the time when I was visiting the swamp, that is, cloudberries are already ripe and other people collected them.

It has a tempting golden color, like chanterelle mushrooms, and a very pleasant taste. Finns are very fond of using cloudberry for jam.

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the sundew

While hunting for mushrooms, I also picked up some sfagnum moss for our garden needs (and also to pack the mushrooms in my bag). Imagine my amazement when at my return, among the bundles of sfagnum moss I found this amazing plant! The plant is a predator. It turned out to be... surprisingly small! The size is hardly more than a dime, and it is much lighter... really like a pure feather. There was nothing threatening in its outlook.

I made an experiment: I tried to see how it eats insects. I caught the most common ant (its size was 2-3 mm, the usual simple black ant). I planted it on a leaf of sundew, right in the center of its "mouth".... and the ant ran away. I repeated ... I planted 1 more ant on other leaves, with same result of a happy escape... Happy for the ant but not happy for me! hehe... I repeated this operation until I was bored, still with zero effect: the sundew had no potention and will to catch poor animals. I don't know what it was, maybe the plant was still very young, small and weak, maybe it is basically unable to hunt ants (which are considered to be the strongest animals on earth!) maybe it would rather eat and digest a smaller mosquitoes... I do not know.

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Whole meadows are covered by a rosemary. It is a plant with a pleasant strong odor, which can make you feel bad if you stay near it long enough. It also prefers northern forests; you are unlikely to find it far to the south.

Trees that stood on the swamp for a long time, become bearded - mosses and lichens hang from the branches of trees.

As I said before, the swamp becomes a swamp because it is a lowland, constantly humid place. Accordingly, a lot of moss grows here, and this is a real kingdom of mosses. It is a pleasant place to walk, enjoying the soft green carpet everywhere.

How do you think the swamp can be connected with the Hive?

There is definitely a connection! Here comes the funny part of the story, I must mention my friend @ludmila.kyriakou. She lives in Cyprus, breeds cats, succulent plants... and she asked me to get her sphagnum moss, moss is great as a substrate for her orchids and it is impossible to buy it in a local store (or it costs space money). And on our swamp, it is as much as you want - absolutely free, that is for free. That is why on my third visit to the swamp, I armed myself with a huge bag and collected as much moss as I could carry. If you thought from the photo that it was a small bag, you were wrong - it is a large wholesale sugar bag, about a meter long.

Here is a proof photo. I have dried all the moss and it is waiting for the customer :) By the way, while the moss is scattered on a large blanket, I used it as a background to photograph mushrooms and moths, and you know what? it's an amazingly beautiful, successful photo background!

By the way, an interesting fact: during World War 2, sphagnum mosses, in shortage conditions, were used in military hospitals as a replacement for gauze bandages to heal wounds, especially purulent ones. One of the features of sphagnum mosses is their antibiotic properties. In addition, it is very soft and absorbs moisture perfectly (one weight part of sphagnum absorbs 25 parts of water).

This is how many interesting things can be found in an ordinary swamp. Find, pick up, and of course take a photo.

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location:	Russian countryside	July 2020	natural lighting
camera/lens:	Canon 5D	various lens	raw-conv.