It was the morning of August 4th. Tropical storm Debby was heading our way and by the time it got here it was a hurricane. We didn’t get a direct hit but it skirted by and caused flooding along the coast. I was out for a morning walk at the causeway nearby, enjoying the cooler breezy weather before the storm.

By the time my walk was almost finished the dark clouds and rain were moving in.

The tide was super low. I was able to walk under the bridge which is rare.

An interesting thing to see on the causeway. Is it art or junk?

I also took a quick walk at the marina.

Early the next morning after the storm had come through I drove over to the nearby Oldsmar pier. The tide was higher than usual and I could tell it had come up over the pier.

The pier was lined with dead baitfish that had been stranded up on the pier when the tide went back down.

The tide was up through the mangroves and into the grass but stopped short of the parking lot.

The surprise was seeing frigatebirds cruising along the shoreline. This was the first time I had seen them this far north of St. Pete. I only see them down at Fort Desoto Park at the southern most point of St. Pete. There were at least 6 and I took the above video with my phone. You can hear the wind blasting. I noticed they were getting closer to the pier and was glad I had put my camera in the car.

The sky was dark gray but they stood out pretty well.

A few flew close to the piers.

Other fly-bys included a great egret, an osprey and a black tern.

Hurricane Debby was the first of three hurricanes to hit the west coast of Florida this season. Debby made landfall early on August 5th near Steinhatchee (in Florida’s Big Bend region) as a category 1. Less than 2 months later Hurricane Helene would make landfall in Perry, just 40 miles north of Steinhatchee as a category 4. You can read my post about Helene here. 

There’s an old Florida saying – “Floridians favorite day of the year is not Christmas, Thanksgiving or 4th of July. It’s 11/30, the end of hurricane season.”