As I have mentioned in the past, my wife and I often take day trips from our condo on Longboat Key and have explored most areas of the Florida Peninsula. On this warm, sunny Sunday, we decided to visit Gasparilla Island (90 minutes to our south), which stretches along the west side of Charlotte Harbor.
This long barrier island, named for a legendary pirate, is accessed via a toll bridge at its north end. Home to Boca Grande, an upscale community of spacious homes, golf courses, restaurants and a marina (where we enjoyed a pleasant lunch on the bay), Gasparilla Island is renowned as a fisherman's paradise and hosts Gasparilla State Park, which stretches along the southwest edge of the island.
Accessed by a series of small parking lots (which were packed with visitors today), the Park is a strip of Gulf beaches and their adjacent dune ecosystem. Shelling is a popular activity there and shells were certainly abundant on our brief afternoon walk; on the other hand, wildlife was all but absent, represented by only a couple of ring-billed gulls (no pelicans, terns, shorebirds or other seabirds on the beach, on the Gulf or in the air). I am often amazed when seemingly pristine habitat fails to attract even a modest variety of wildlife; no doubt, this phenomenon was transient but it was disappointing nonetheless.
This long barrier island, named for a legendary pirate, is accessed via a toll bridge at its north end. Home to Boca Grande, an upscale community of spacious homes, golf courses, restaurants and a marina (where we enjoyed a pleasant lunch on the bay), Gasparilla Island is renowned as a fisherman's paradise and hosts Gasparilla State Park, which stretches along the southwest edge of the island.
Accessed by a series of small parking lots (which were packed with visitors today), the Park is a strip of Gulf beaches and their adjacent dune ecosystem. Shelling is a popular activity there and shells were certainly abundant on our brief afternoon walk; on the other hand, wildlife was all but absent, represented by only a couple of ring-billed gulls (no pelicans, terns, shorebirds or other seabirds on the beach, on the Gulf or in the air). I am often amazed when seemingly pristine habitat fails to attract even a modest variety of wildlife; no doubt, this phenomenon was transient but it was disappointing nonetheless.
