Sea turtle egg-laying season at the Mediterranean coast

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Something told me, late last night,  to post my turtle pictures.
And today I wake up to discover that today is WORLD TURTLE DAY!!

It is now turtle egg laying season along Israel's Mediterranean coast, but sadly, this sea turtle didn't make it.

My town's touring group visited here in March and we saw three dead ones.

Each year about 300 sea turtles are washed up onto Israeli beaches after being harmed by marine waste, fishing nets, hooks, boat motors, etc. 

Now, during the spring and summer laying season many volunteers and park rangers come to the beaches to assist and protect the endangered sea turtles when they come ashore and later, when the hatchlings hatch from the eggs.

The Israel Sea Turtle Rescue Center does good work.
You can see their videos and photos on Facebook at  המרכז להצלת צבי הים .

When the coast was less built up, less urbanized, the females would swim ashore, lay their eggs in a sandy nest, and immediately return to the water by following the moon's reflected light on the sea.
But the beach we visited is close to the big Arab town of Jisr az-Zarqa.
The turtles now often get confused and turn instead toward the light of the town and lose their way.
That's why volunteers are needed.
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UPDATE May 23:
See also photos, video, and info about Israel's turtle rehab center:
https://www.israel21c.org/nursing-sea-turtles-back-to-health/

And more information from this good article:

Under cover of darkness in May and June, female sea turtles make their way from the waters of Israel’s Mediterranean beaches to the seashore, where they dig nests and lay dozens of eggs. In August, the hatchlings start cracking their way out of their shells, and begin a perilous trek to the relative safety of the water.

Israel is home to loggerhead, leatherback, green and softshell turtles – all endangered due to decades of hunting, pollution, manmade dangers and habitat disturbances caused by human activity. The newly laid eggs and the hatchlings are quite vulnerable to predators and the hot sun. Left on their own, only a few survive.
Since the mid-1980s, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority has been sending out rangers and volunteers in the summer months to move nests to protected beach reserves or incubation farms.

(Linking to Camera-Critters,  ABC Wednesday and Our World Tuesday.)
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An electrifying kiss

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Suddenly crazy dazzling streaks across my laptop and TV screens, then a huge flash of light outside my window and a loud PATZ!!  And then my place and the whole neighborhood were plunged into darkness. 
I grabbed a big flashlight and walked down to the corner to check the big electric pole, the one that says "HIGH VOLTAGE,  DANGER OF DEATH!"

Our town's security team was already there, calling the Electric Company's emergency repair line.
Curious neighbors were milling about and pointed out to me what had fallen from above to the hard pavement below.

One pigeon sitting on one high tension wire had touched a second pigeon sitting on a parallel wire, forming a short circuit and causing the big bang and their own electrocution!
Totally charred wings, so sad.

The poor pair of pigeons had only wanted to kiss each other good night.
Even in death they were locked together. 
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday, signs signs, and Camera Critters .)

Dead bird falls from heaven

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Dead animals are often the only animals I find to contribute to Sunday's Camera Critters meme.

This pretty bird  was freshly-dead  when I walked through the eucalyptus grove in the wadi.
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Over the last few days the media has been buzzing about what some people thought was a hint from Pope Francis that animals die and maybe go to heaven.
It turns out that one paper ran an article about Francis but with a headline that actually quoted Pope Paul VI who once in the 1960s or 70s told a boy grieving for his pet, "Heaven is open to all creatures."
But at a recent audience Francis only said, while speaking of the afterlife, "Holy Scripture teaches us that the fulfillment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us."

You can read the explanation in this CNN article or in the wide-reaching article in the New York Times, which today made the corrections.
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My own Jewish religion hardly knows what to say about what happens to people after death.
But sometimes the rabbis refer to "the next world" or "the world-to-come" as Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden, and that certainly can conjure up images of animals roaming around, no?
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Do you ever ponder this question?
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UPDATE Dec. 15:  Catholic News Service today tries to clarify this and gives more ideas about animal heaven.
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Birds and blasts

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Missiles, mortars, and rockets are not the only things falling from our sky.

I wonder if a pigeon can get a heart attack from hearing too many Red Alert sirens and feeling explosions in the sky. 
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UPDATE July 24:
Look at this! An owl was hit by a mortar is being treated for shrapnel wounds!
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(Linking to Camera Critters and  ABC Wednesday.)
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Playing with a gecko

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Oi veh, this is the second Shabbat in a row that I find a dead animal in the grass.
Maybe I should not have wished for something to post on Camera Critters. 

Shachar actually led me to it.  
She was more interested in playing with the poor gecko, batting it around, than eating it. 
I think this cat was not the one who killed the critter, and she is too proud to be a scavenger.
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Shmulikipod?*

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(You can enlarge the photos with one click and then another.)

Oh poor little hedgehog, he lost his head!

I was returning from my Sabbath walk on this path in the wilderness just an hour ago, lamenting that I had found no animals to post for today's Camera Critters meme. 

Just then the little kipod and his severed head in the grass caught my eye.
With a stick I rolled him onto the path and saw it was a fresh kill. 
The grass was trampled down for about a meter around him.
There must have been a struggle.
Actually, I had noticed a hawk flying off as I was coming up the path . . . 

It was getting dark.  I said a few funeral-type words, told the hedgehog to go in peace, walked on, and hoped the hawk would at least return to finish its dinner.
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