In my 2023 countdown to the end of the year, I wrote (in T is for terrapin, 25 December) that I’d had my closest ever sighting of a Yellow-bellied terrapin, also known as Yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta), in early November.

That record was eclipsed on Tuesday by this view of a larger, much bolder beast, also at Roath Park Lake. When it turned its head to look at me, I found that cold stare from those reptilian eyes quite unnerving.