Aug 18, 2006

Third time's a charm!

We went yesterday up to a branch of Nahal Alexander to a section called Gesher Ha'Tzavim (Turtle Bridge). Supposedly you can see very large soft shell water turtles swimming around, and if you bring food they even come out of the water to eat.

We have been there on two previous occassions to see these turtles, but we never got them to come out. We have been hearing rumors that because of pollution they have been ddecreasing in numbers and maybe there are so few left that we just don't see them.

We figured we would try again. We went yesterday. We go out on the platform over the water to watch and we start throwing some bread in the water. It takes a moment, but all of the sudden we start seeing a bunch of nasty looking catfish (I think)and some small turtles attacking every crumb of bread we throw in. It was pretty cool and there were tons of them.

Eventually the big boys showed up. Only a few of them came, but we were not there for very long and by the time they showed up we did not have that much bread left..

It was very exciting to see the big turtles. They look wierd (not really much like regular small turtles).

Here is a picture of one..

The kids wanted to grab one and take it home, but I thought that if I reached out to grab this monster he would bite my arm off!! (and this was the smaller of the three we saw!)

8 comments:

  1. speaking of food...

    you should know that I just returned from a b-b-q at Shaya's. The food was phenominal. In fact, I daresay, it may have been the finest food I've ever consumed. How I wish I could share the fullness and richness of these fork tender exuisitelly tangy steaks. The meat on the ribs fell away like butter shavings on a cast iron boiler.

    And truthfully I report to you that even were he not standing here with gun to my head, forcing me to recount the evening, rest assured that these selfsame words and rapterous events would be regaled here.

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  2. tnspr569 - amd a monster it looked to us as well!

    Dan - you call this turtle food??? maybe we are its food...

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  3. Rafi,

    I took my boys to the Turtle Bridge last Sunday. At first we only saw two or three of the big turtles. Then a Hareidi family arrived with what seemed to be a bottomless sack full of bread. The father of the family just threw loaf after loaf, and pretty soon there was a total feeding frenzy going on. There must have been about 20 of those big turtles and an equal number of huge catfish taking part. Some birds also showed up to share in any scraps that fell far up on the river bank.

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  4. that sounds great.. we only came with one bag full of bread and leftover challah.. we saw tens of catfish and small turtles, but only a few of the monster turtles...

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  5. you never heard of turtle soup?

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  6. heard of it.. not so sure you would want to make soup iof this ugly monster..

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  7. and cows are so beutiful? Remind me not to let you stay in my barn when your car breaks down on a cold winter night.

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  8. dan - you have barn? in the middle of West Rogers Park?

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