There's a turtle in our pond.

It's a small pond, and a big turtle. (Reasonably big, anyway. It's about the size of, I dunno, a salad plate? Seven or eight inches wide, I think.)

Seems a good chance this is the same Painted Turtle we saw briefly last year (seen in the photo above), when it spent the morning inexplicably wandering around the edge of the unpaved driveway in front of our house. We were concerned it might wander into the street, so we brought it to the backyard, where it discovered the pond, and eventually wandered off. That was the last of the turtle excitement.

Then, about two weeks ago I spotted it — or quite possibly another turtle, can't be certain — from an upstairs window, basking in the sun on the big flat rock in the middle of the pond.

It's difficult to get too close enough to get a better look, though — it seems rather shy, and retreats into the water before I can get the least bit near to the pond. It's a bit more comfortable under the water, though. It hides among the leaf litter and algae, but it can usually be spotted. That's how we know it's a Painted Turtle.

(We have a frog, too, but we've had frogs every year. A turtle, that's something extraordinary.)