SPACEPHOTOS

(02/18/2000) -- Near a road at Kennedy Space Center, a red-tailed hawk perches on a weathered tree stump. The red-tailed hawk has a stocky build and broad, rounded wings. Its broad range covers Alaska and Nova Scotia south to Panama. It can frequently be seen perched in a tree at the edge of a meadow, watching for movement in the grass below. It feeds mainly on small rodents. 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. Kennedy Space Center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, encompassing 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