Wilmington, Delaware, USA  | - Click on the image above to view gallery
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 Mid-June and we find ourselves in Wilmington, Delaware as the company Nigel works for has their head office there. I accompanied him and as it was my first visit to the United States I was really keen to get out and about, meet some local people and visit some local tourist attractions too.
Wilmington is not a very big city at all although for us coming from the small town of Sandwich it was definitely a bit of a culture shock when we arrived at our 8th floor apartment. We had quite a good view out of our windows towards the Riverside, an area I would be investigating quite a few times during our visit, and we soon got used to being in the city centre.
Like a lot of places Wilmington has areas to be avoided and once I established where these were and that there were many areas that were safe to visit I set about working out how I would get about. I soon found that I actually preferred to walk rather than use cabs although the local buses were very handy too. I like the fact you paid just $1.15 whether you went one block or several miles to the shopping mall outside of the city, which I did on a couple of occasions.  Wilmington
The weather was hot; in fact on many days the temperature was in the low 90s, with humidity that made it feel much hotter. It didn’t put me off too much; I just made sure I always had plenty of water with me to drink. Before we arrived in Wilmington I had done a bit of online searching and identified a few places that would be right up my street the first of which was the Riverside area. On my first full day I walked there from the centre of the city and once I realised that at the end of the riverside path was a nature refuge I made my way there. All along the riverside, just listening to birdsong I didn’t recognise and seeing the Muskrats feeding was hugely satisfying. Once at the Nature Refuge, which had only been open since October 2009, I really enjoyed watching the dragonflies and birds, all of them new to me.
Also in view from a telescope set up at the visitor centre was an Osprey nest and you could just about make out a chick. A platform had been put up for them to nest on; it looked a rather unsuitable situation right next to a railway line and not far from the I-95 highway, but it didn’t seem to bother the birds and it was a real treat to see them. It certainly wasn’t what I expected to find on my first day finding my way about the city. We were also told that on the Brandywine Building, one of the high rise buildings in the city centre, some Peregrines had successfully nested. When out one day I looked up and down the building to see if I could see anywhere likely. High up I could just make out something on one of the windowsills but without binoculars I really wasn’t sure quite what it was. You can imagine my surprise then when I looked at my pictures on the computer to see I'd caught one of the birds high up on the building.
 Nature refuge  Killdeer  Muskrat
Another place I’d thought of as somewhere I’d like to visit was the park alongside the Brandywine Creek, which runs through the city. Going through the middle of the park is the I-95 highway, which amazingly you don’t really notice unless you are walking under the enormous bridge. There is a very small city zoo there which I did visit on one occasion but the enclosures were all very much in the shade so I took very few pictures. For me what was far more interesting was watching the local wildlife. In the park I saw many more Muskrats and lots of common native birds, but for me all of them were new. Of course there are the local Grey Squirrels which seemed to be smaller than the ones we see at home. On one part of the Brandywine Creek by a weir I spent quite some time watching both a Blue Heron and Night Heron fishing.
During our first week staying in the city there was a free jazz festival at Rodney Square, just a couple of blocks from our apartment building. On one evening we went and watched a couple of acts perform: Ravi Coltrane (the son of John Coltrane) and Cindy Blackman (a drummer probably best known for working with Lenny Kravitz). I can’t say that jazz music does very much for me, but the atmosphere there was great. Everyone was very friendly and obviously really enjoying themselves as much as we were as we tucked into our delicious jerk chicken while sitting on the steps of the square and listening to the music.
 American Robin  Christina River  Jazz festival
In the end I found plenty of things to do both in and around the city. Just about everyone I met would say “Hi” and ask how I was doing, and when they found out I was from England would love to stop and talk, making me feel very welcome. I loved seeing the local wildlife too which didn’t seem to mind one bit sharing the city with the people who lived there.
The pictures from the album that accompanies this journal entry were taken throughout my stay and were things that caught my eye when I was getting around and also include some of the local wildlife too.
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I have thoroughly enjoyed your fabulous photos,especially as it is where my friends daughter and husband used to live and Eric still works there, such a small world
Take care Sherran