I was woke up around 8 AM by a call from Arlene Koch who told me that there was a
Roseate Spoonbill at the Conejohela Flats in Lancaster County! I said I was going to eat and then head down there and asked if she wanted to go along. At the last minute, she called back and said she'd be ready by the time I got to her house. We bypassed I-78, which was backed up for some reason, and eventually got onto it in Allentown. When we pulled up to the Blue Rock Road boat launch around 11:30, there was no one there, so we assumed that the bird and all the birders had left. We walked to the top of the launch and I started to train my scope on the Conjohela Flats when Arlene said, "Isn't that it over there?" Sure enough, the bird was feeding along the edge of one of the islands just north of the launch. We managed to get nice looks through the scope and I was able to get some long-distance photos of it.
I called Jason Horn to see where he was and he showed up soon after that. The bird only stayed about 10-15 minutes and then took off a short distance upriver, landing in one of the trees on the island. I was fortunate to get some fairly good flight shots of it when it did.
Needless to say, if accepted, this bird would represent one of only a few records for Pennsylvania!
