KSC-01PP-1005

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Seen on KSC grounds, a robin pauses in a Brazilian pepper tree filled with red berries. Robins range throughout North America, preferring gardens, open woodland, agricultural land, as well as towns. The birds are usually considered a harbinger of spring, and can be seen in large flocks throughout Florida in January and February, especially as they gather for northern migration. Kennedy Space Center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge encompasses 92,000 acres that are a habitat for more than 331 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds, as well as a variety of insects