Here is a raft full of turtles. Fall and Spring are the seasons when turtles most like to bask. In the Fall, the water is getting colder, but the sun still puts out some warming rays. Therefore the turtles like to get out of the relatively cold water and bask on the raft. Turtles do not seem to hibernate in our area, I have seen them active during all months of the year. However, they are extremely wary. All the photographs I have of them were made through window glass in the living room. If I go outside, or even make a sudden move inside, they immediately all disembark!
Turtle Raft 2.0 has been a great success. It was constructed for me by two of my grandchildren, Katie and Jack. My son-in-law Mike helped launch it. It has nice wide hardware cloth ramps. These make it easy for the turtles to climb up on the raft, and is nice and buoyant to hold lots of turtles. l think these are mostly Yellow-bellied Sliders (Trachemys scripta scripta) and Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta). It is difficult to count how many there are, because some are piled on top of others. I count 22 or 23 total, which, if verified, would be close to the record for occupancy.