{CaptionsBy}    Information Dynamics, Inc.

{LastEditor}    Anita Barrett

{ScannedBy}     NASA/KSC Public Affairs Office

{author}        NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration

{date}          01-Mar-1999

{description}   A flock of short-billed dowitchers crowd onto a grassy mound in
                the shallow waters of the Merritt Island National Wildlife
                Refuge, which shares a boundary with Kennedy Space Center. The
                dowitchers range from southern Alaska to eastern Canada, and they
                winter from the southern United States to central South America.
                They often frequent coastal flats during migrations. The 92,000-
                acre refuge is a habitat for more than 310 species of birds, 25
                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.

{highres}       2617 x 1836

{highsize}      891588

{hightype}      JPEG

{lowres}        320 x 224

{lowsize}       102101

{lowtype}       GIF

{mediumres}     1024 x 718

{mediumsize}    233228

{mediumtype}    JPEG

{number}        KSC-99PP-0254

{slideres}      172 x 152

{slidesize}     37706

{slidetype}     GIF

{tinyres}       100 x 70

{tinysize}      10674

{tinytype}      GIF

{title}         Short-billed dowitchers crowd a grassy mound in the waters around
                KSC

{type}          Image

{end}