In this photo from 2006, a mother osprey watches over her chicks in a nest near the NASA News Center at Kennedy Space Center. This was the third year the ospreys have raised a family at the site. Also known as a fish hawk, ospreys select sites of opportunity, from trees and telephone poles to rocks or even flat ground. In the United States, they are found from Alaska and Newfoundland to Florida and the Gulf Coast. Osprey nests are found throughout the Kennedy Space Center and nearby Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which shares a boundary with the center.
The Refuge is a habitat for more than 310 species of birds, 25 mammals, 117 fishes and 65 amphibians and reptiles. In addition, the Refuge supports 19 endangered or threatened wildlife species on federal and state lists, more than any other single refuge in the U.S.Image Credit: NASA/George Shelton