In this photo from Oct. 14, 2008, a great blue heron stands watch among a pond of water lilies on NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
In this photo from Oct. 14, 2008, a great blue heron stands watch among a pond of water lilies on NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It is one of 310 species of birds that inhabit the National Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, which shares a boundary with Kennedy. The marshes and open water of the refuge also 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. Kennedy is responsible for more protected species than any other federal property in the continental United States.
Image Credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis