KSC-2011-8383

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Northern pintail ducks fill a pond at Black Point Wildlife Drive, part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. NASA's Kennedy Space Center shares a boundary with the refuge, consisting of 140,000 acres. The Refuge provides a wide variety of habitats: coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries and marshes, freshwater impoundments, scrub, pine flatwoods, and hardwood hammocks that provide habitat for more than 1,500 species of plants and animals, including about 331 species of birds. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann