KSC-05pd-1018

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Snowy egrets join in a feeding frenzy in a marshy area of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Ranging from northern California, Oklahoma and Maine to southern South America, the snowy egret winters north to California and South Carolina. In the East, they are best known as salt marsh birds. Once an endangered species, their numbers have increased. The refuge was established in 1963 on Kennedy Space Center land and water not used by NASA for the space program. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering grounds for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds.