SPACEPHOTOS

(05/18/2001) -- Chicks of the Black-necked Stilt already display the long legs and stride of the adult. The species inhabits salt marshes and shallow coastal bays in the East, as well as freshwater marshes in the West. They are found along the Atlantic Coast from Delaware to northern South America. Adults are black above and white below, with a long neck, very long red legs and a straight, very thin bill. These chicks were photographed in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which shares a boundary with Kennedy Space Center. 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