KSC-2011-8332

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- From its perch atop a mangrove, this great blue heron appears to oversee the activities of the assortment of birds in the surrounding waters at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The birds gathered in this particular group include coots, shovelbills and pintails. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, consisting of 140,000 acres. The refuge provides a wide variety of habitats -- coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks -- that provide sanctuary for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals, including about 331 species of birds. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann