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Old 04-23-2016, 12:45 PM
 
Location: Toronto, Ottawa Valley & Dunedin FL
1,409 posts, read 2,734,771 times
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Gulfport is very nice, but it's not rural. Neither is Dunedin, come to that. On the other hand, in Dunedin, walking home from downtown at night, you can often see a great abundance of stars. As for natural areas, there are lots of parks, both state and county, with wild areas. We love John Chestnut Park, for instance, up on Lake Tarpon--great, although there's no downtown there to walk around--if there was, I'd move there. Ozona is quite the little backwater, but won't remain so very long if people keep moving there!
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Old 04-24-2016, 05:25 AM
 
Location: Central Mexico and Central Florida
7,150 posts, read 4,885,535 times
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While not rural, Gulfport sits on Boca Ciega Bay and being so close to a large body of water anywhere, helps with dark skies. In addition to great starry nights to our south and west, we get to see a lot of water fowl and dolphins daily when we walk on the beach, and an occasional manatee at the City Pier.

Yesterday after dinner as we sat in the hot tub, 2 osprey flew pretty low overhead, this is not unusual. A few times a day, flocks of wild parrots buzz us (chattering away) as they fly from Clam Bayou over to the beach area. You can see and hear them all around town and my neighbor's bird feeder attracts a few from time to time. Bald eagles nest in Clam Bayou (walkable in 10 minutes from my home). We see some rather rare birds, such as the wood stork (we see them at the shoreline a few months out of the year, we can see their nesting areas in Pasadena Country Club, a large golf course on the edge of Guflport). Also the roseated spoonbill...when you first see it you'll think it's a flamingo! Both these large birds have made a tremendous comeback recently. I'm a bit of a birder and living where I can walk 5 minutes from my house and see these sorts of fowl is amazing to me.

Also ... at Pasadena CC (we are summer-only members), we saw river otters twice last year. Wow, they were amazing! Just like a body of water, a golf course is a great green space in which to see a lot of waterfowl and other critters.

Our yard (we're one block from Bay) is visited often by large and small ibises. We welcome them as they aerate our lawn for free! Last year a large one plucked a snake from our yard and consumed it. Here's a photo of it:


Last edited by dothetwist; 04-24-2016 at 05:58 AM..
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Old 04-24-2016, 06:25 AM
 
Location: Toronto, Ottawa Valley & Dunedin FL
1,409 posts, read 2,734,771 times
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I love the ubiquitous wildlife in our area! We call the flocks of ibises "chickens" because of the way they seem to roam around in flocks pecking at the ground for bugs. The bird eating the snake is an egret, btw, not an ibis. I love that I can be walking through the parking lot, or down the street in my Dunedin neighbourhood and be confronted by an egret just standing there, hunting. Ospreys flying overhead will also never get old. We have a retention pond opposite our condo that, when full of water, houses egrets, herons, ducks and, from time to time, spring peeper frogs. We have an eagle's nest a couple of blocks away, and lots of pelicans swooping around down by the pier. We've had a great horned owl outside our Lanai at times in the winter, and we have the wild parrots screeching around too.

All of that despite the fact that Pinellas County has the densest population of any county in Florida.
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Old 04-24-2016, 06:40 AM
 
Location: Central Mexico and Central Florida
7,150 posts, read 4,885,535 times
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You're right about the egret; I misspoke.

Yes, it is amazing to see so many wonderful creatures in this area.

We also love Dunedin and still visit there a few times a year to eat at the Living Room on Main and Kelly's.

There are so many sweet towns in Pinellas...Safety Harbor and Tarpon Springs are cool, too. And when you want upscale, museums, more art galleries/shops, we're under 15 minutes from downtown St. Pete. And under 30 minutes from the airport, which is very important for us.

Life is good.
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Old 04-24-2016, 08:08 AM
 
90 posts, read 121,736 times
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Ditto on Gulfport. Lots of positives there. All these towns mentioned are great places in their own way. The hard part is picking just one.
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Old 04-27-2016, 01:49 PM
 
Location: South Tampa
1,163 posts, read 2,094,150 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wwanderer View Post
Gulfport is very nice, but it's not rural. Neither is Dunedin, come to that. On the other hand, in Dunedin, walking home from downtown at night, you can often see a great abundance of stars. As for natural areas, there are lots of parks, both state and county, with wild areas. We love John Chestnut Park, for instance, up on Lake Tarpon--great, although there's no downtown there to walk around--if there was, I'd move there. Ozona is quite the little backwater, but won't remain so very long if people keep moving there!
Neither are, but OP asked for places that had "rural character." I personally don't feel like I'm in a large metropolitan area like Tampa Bay when I'm in Gulfport or Dunedin. They feel isolated from everything else around it, at least their downtown areas.
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Old 05-17-2016, 10:52 AM
 
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Thanks again everyone. Will be visiting all these places in a couple weeks. Looking forward to it.
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Old 05-18-2016, 06:57 AM
 
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There is one neighborhood in St Pete called Driftwood that has that old Florida feel. It isn't as walkable as Gulfport, but it is fairly close to downtown St Pete, and it is right on the water.
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