First there were questions about how the osprey nest disappeared. Next came anger over bird deterrents where the nest stood for many years.
Now the deterrents are gone and numerous people report observing the birds soaring nearby.
“I have word that the church is going to be taking the deterrents down. Yay!”
So says an email to The Islander Nov. 17 from Briana Gagnier, who informed the media earlier this month about the osprey nest missing from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Holmes Beach.
The Rev. Rosemary Backer said the roofer was scheduled to return Nov. 20 to remove bird deterrents from the church steeple and they did.
The church pastor also wanted to set the record straight about the nest that disappeared from the steeple after more than a decade.
“It was taken down in a storm. It’s all a lie to say it was taken down with the tenting,” she said Nov. 16.
The base of the cross atop Gloria Dei, 6608 Marina Drive, had been home to a pair of ospreys, as well as offspring, year after year.
But it was Gloria Dei’s media contact, Jean Etsinger, who previously told The Islander the nest was removed to facilitate a fumigation treatment to rid the church of termites.
Reports to The Islander in September indicated the nest, although damaged, had weathered Hurricane Irma.
Not true, according to Backer. Irma swept the nest away, she said.
Though initially the church reported the nest intact after the storm, on closer examination, a roofing company “found just mud, no nest.”
In a Nov. 2 news release, the church reported the roofers found the platform — comprising copper sheets — atop the church in good shape and Jay Poppe, a Gloria Dei property liaison, deemed the steeple in “good shape.”
Etsinger said Nov. 4 she didn’t know who directed the placement of the bird deterrents that appeared after the fumigation.
Backer said the roofer put up the bird deterrents.
The church had been worried about the structure of the roof. “The tree was the issue,” she said, referencing a plant that sprouted next to the nest.
Backer also said “months ago” the church contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and learned it could remove the nest.
An FWC rule change in March allows osprey nest removals when there are no eggs or flightless chicks.
If a nest is removed, the FWC recommends but does not require a platform be placed within 300 feet of its former location.
Backer described her congregation as “pro-conservation,” but added she doubted installing a platform would satisfy the neighbors.
Gagnier responded in a Nov. 16 email to The Islander: “They don’t even have to put up a platform, just taking down the deterrents would satisfy everyone who is upset with this.
“If they decide not to take them down, neighbors want to see a platform,” she added.
On Nov. 18, an osprey was spotted flying above Gloria Dei, perching and whistling atop the cross.
Home again?