Here are a couple of male wood ducks (Aix sponsa) in eclipse plumage on a log in the canal water, which is green with duck weed (sub-family Lemnoideae). Male wood ducks have gorgeous plumage in mating season, but more muted like females in their eclipse plumage, during non-mating season.

Here are painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) basking on a log in the canal. Note that they are covered with duck weed. Summer days for these cold-blooded omnivores are divided between basking in the sun to warm up and hunting for both vegetation and small animals such as fish and frogs.

These lovely fall phlox (Phlox paniculata) were growing by the side of the tow path.

The poke weed (Phytolacca americana), with its lovely purple berries, grows all over Maryland. Although it is a lovely color, do not even think of eating it; it contains a dire poison. There was a time when country folk ate its leaves and stems, boiled down twice or thrice to remove the toxins: it was like spinach.