Merritt Island Florida scrub-jay habitat

Careful planning when traveling to a conference often pays off.  In this case, I got to see a threatened Florida scrub-jay in its  native habitat at the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge.  Getting up early on the day I was leaving Florida from the NarCon Rocketry conference allowed me to spend a couple of hours in the refuge that surrounds the Kennedy Space Center.  I also go to see the threatened Florida gopher tortoise.  It is unfortunate that both species are listed as “vulnerable” in the IUCN Red List making them a bit more rare than just “threatened”, but it is very good that there is a large block of protected habitat protecting both species.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List is the main document for tracking how rare each species is on Earth.

Here’s the gopher tortoise