In mid-March on a sunny but chilly day Janet and I went to Airley Gardens in Wilmington. It is a some what famous attraction with a well developed infrastructure to handle large crowds of tourists. We went during the off season and saw few other visitors.
The Gardens are a portion of the original plantation, which was somebody’s residence, farm and garden a century or more ago. Due the plantation’s location adjacent to the saltwater estuary of Bradley Creek, and thus close to the Atlantic ocean, it was damaged and flooded by several hurricanes. The main residence is gone, but a family still lives in a house on a private portion of the estate.
In the images of the tops of trees, if you look closely, in one picture you can see a bald eagle sitting on a pine tree branch; and in another photo is an eagle’s nest with an adolescent eagle standing on it. In another image close to a sapling, you can see a red shouldered hawk.
