Located a hop, skip and a jump from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is a bird lover’s dream. Ever since I took Pelican Island Audubon Society’s bird course, I have been trying to visit as many Florida birding trails as possible. Time is of the essence here since a lot of the migratory birds leave in the summer for cooler climes.

The highlight of our trip was the 3.5 mile Black Point Wildlife Drive. It’s a narrow dirt road with a few turnoffs to observe nature. What always amazes me are drivers who make a specific agenda to do these drives and then whiz through at breakneck speeds and never stopping. Oh well, we let these cowboys just pass and leave us in the dust. Unfortunately, we did not see any of the endangered Florida Scrub jays, even though the Refuge has three populations of them. However, we did spot the Roseate Spoonbill, Turkey Vultures, Great White Herons, Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons,Tri-colored Herons, the Black Necked Stilt, White Ibis, the American Coot, the Snowy Egret and a few other birds I couldn’t identify. There were no manatees at the observation post either but lots of Brown Pelicans which are a hoot to watch.

I did get a great picture of a dragonfly. Funny story, I had mentioned to my husband that I hadn’t been able to take any pictures of one and as we were walking back to the car, he told me to look down. Of course, I looked up, down and all around and saw nothing. Finally, I looked down and there was this dragonfly on the sidewalk. I was able to get quite close and move around and he didn’t move at all (no he wasn’t dead). It was like he was a celebrity and was just letting me take his picture. Really cool!

The Refuge Center has a Welcome Center and some board walked trails to observe nature. We did see the Osprey fly from its nest but I couldn’t get a close up. They have a Butterfly garden and there were hundreds of Zebra Longwing and Great Spangled Frittarilies.