I haven't posted here in a while. Yesterday I did some hiking and herping in one of our beautiful Florida conservation areas. I was walking down the trail and I stopped to look at the scenery. Looking, looking, then I looked down and, behold, a gorgeous little White-Tailed fawn just sitting on the ground in a spot surrounded by palmetto bushes. It was still spotted! It stayed still trying to be camouflaged. I slowly reached for my camera, but as soon as I unzipped the case, he bolted. So, sorry for no pictures.

On the way back I heard light ''peeping'' in the woods. I looked around and saw two baby wild turkeys. And no sooner had I seen them, that I looked up and saw the mother in the middle of the trail probably 20 feet from me. She walked around on the trail, wandered in and out of the woods, and started ''clucking'' for her babies. They jumped up and ran after her. Then I realized there were more as three more babies appeared and ran after her, then another three, and yet another three. She gathered up at least 11 babies and they all left together. What a good mother looking after her babies .

This might not sound so thrilling to some of you, but I was in awe. I have seen plenty of deer, but never a little fawn all by itself. And I have never seen a small army of baby turkeys following their mother in the wild. I did manage to get a quick picture of one baby and the mother.