The Ojai Garden

Mother Turtle came into our garden today ... straight into her Strawberry patch actually! [she, Kame-sama, hiding under the Arugula ...]

have a look at these websites for our 'Sespe Green Turtle', officially a subspecies of 'Southern Pacific Pond Turtle', formerly the 'Western Pond Turtle', though her actual home is streams and wetlands (which largely don't exist any more.)

in particular, download (4th link) the adobe acrobat slideshow of the baby sespe green turtles! this is exactly how our turtles here look, totally dark grimy dull green -- but what a personality they have -- takes months for them to get to know you and accept your presence in their pond or garden!

http://natureali.org/pondturtle.htm

http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/NATRES/NR_ElijahTurtle.shtml

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Actinemys+marmorata+pallida

http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/NATRES/images/Turtle_Pics/TurtleSlideshow.pdf