SPACEPHOTOS

(03/01/1999) -- A glossy ibis searches for food in the shallow waters of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which shares a boundary with Kennedy Space Center. Identified by its chestnut plumage and green wings, the glossy ibis ranges on or near the coast from Maine to Florida and Texas. It inhabits marshes, swamps, flooded fields, coastal bays, and estuaries. The 92,000-acre refuge is a habitat for more than 310 species of birds, 25 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