Great pictures and a nifty little island. I like the access ramp you made!

My pond ( http://www.clowder.net/cats/Turtles/pond.html ) is home to
seven adult and two juvenile RES, the biggest about 11" long. I've
raised most of them from hatchlings. I've found a few hatchlings this
year, mostly injured, and all died. :'( However, I've seen one
hatchling in the pond and have hopes that she will make it.

Turtles are definitely not slow! Some of mine can even cover land rather
quickly. And I have learned to have the greatest respect for their
climbing abilities.

Gabrielle in hot southern Arizona


Dan Robinson wrote:

We moved our four baby RES outside yesterday after a brief stay in an
aquarium. Looks like the young ones have found a friend with our RES
that we found this spring as a tiny hatchling walking in our yard.
He is the larger turtle in the photos. You can view them all at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/koiboyk...7600703827523/
PS only four of the five wanted to pose for the camera today.

What I really wanted to share was my floating turtle island. It is
the black thing they are sitting upon. It is constructed of a ring
of 2 inch PVC. I mounted a piece of heavy plastic to the ring and
then made a ramp for them to climb upon the flat area. Finally I
added some shade from a black plastic cement mixing tub that had
sprung a leak. Cut the tub diagonally and mounted it to one corner
of the island. I then tied a cord to the understructure and attached
the other end of the nylon cord to my bottom drain. This keeps the
island from drifting to the pond wall. My hope is that the turtles
will not be able to climb from the island to over the top of the pond
wall and escape.

For anyone that thinks turtles are slow they should see how quickly
they can swim in open water.
Dan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/koiboykoi/ if the above link does not
work. Click on the set that has turtles. There is also a photo of
our water lily pond.