Saturday, it was found along one of the public streets to the east of there, which allowed it to finally be posted to the public. The location was in some crabapple trees at a business called "Newly Weds Foods", located along South Commerce Way, right at the eastern border of Hanover Township. The bird was found there again on Sunday morning. It was seen by several birders for about 15 minutes and then flew off a long way to the northeast. Most of the happy birders headed for New Jersey to see the Boreal Chickadee that's been there since February 23rd. I decided to drive around the area to see if I could find where it went.
As I drove down Brodhead Road, I noticed a large number of Robins on both sides of the road. Some were feeding in two good-sized crabapple trees in front of the Service Master building at the corner of Brodhead Road and South Rabold Circle. This spot is just inside Bethlehem Township. Since it was Sunday and the parking lot was empty, I pulled in there and checked out the area. Within about five minutes, I refound the thrush. I was able to use the building and the sign as a blind and get a lot of pretty good photos of the bird.
It also flew across Brodhead Road and landed on the ground under the pines.
As you can see, this is one cool-looking bird. Even the undertail coverts have an intricate pattern.
I also had a Hermit Thrush check out the one crabapple.
Just across the street, in the pines on the north side of Brodhead Road, I had several Purple Finches, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, a Golden-crowned Kinglet, and a Brown Creeper. And yes, this photo has the correct orientation. The bird was completely upside-down when I took this.
I passed this additional location on to some of my friends and left there after watching it for well over an hour. To make it real easy to get to this second location, paste the following coordinates into Google Maps:
40.677744, -75.370455
I was told that it was again seen there later in the day, so these two spots seem to be the best bet to find it.
One VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Brodhead Road is a very busy road with lots a tractor-trailer traffic and employees heading to and from the businesses. DO NOT park along Brodhead Road! I saw a Bethlehem Township police car while there and explained to them why they might be seeing birders with binoculars and cameras walking the area. The cul-de-sac on South Rabold Circle has signs stating "No Stopping or Standing". I told the cops that parking might be a problem during the weekdays, especially with the signs posted everywhere. These two guys were nice and told me that they would be tolerable about parking on the side streets, but that might depend on who's in the car at the time, so do that at your own risk.
March 6th Update:
I was able to get some more photos of the bird on Wednesday.
The bird was well camouflaged when it was under the pines.
A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was also at the spot.
Additional photos of the bird can be found in my 2019 Local Notables Album.
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