David, Well, British Islander species do occasionally occur in New
England.  Usually when there have been strong Arctic "hurricanes"
pushing Atlantic spirals far west.  Don't know what the Atlantic weather
has been like.

David

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 11:40 AM, David Beierl wrote:

> At 12:18 PM 11/20/2009, mcneely4@cox.net wrote:
>> Could it be that the pink bill appears yellow in the light you are
>> observing with?
>
> Yellow is about my best color, so I don't think so, but could be I
> suppose.  The breast as well as belly was whitish, and the back etc
> weren't anywhere near as dark as the slaty-colored juncos we get here,
> and could have been brownish rather than grayish -- my red/green
> deficiency makes that sort of distinction a bit chancy.  Definitely
> not a warbler bill.  Can't swear to the streaking but sitting together
> on the feeder rail with miscellaneous sparrows the contrast was
> notable.  Smaller than an English sparrow.  When I went for the
> glasses it flew, of course, both times.
>
> I'm beginning to wonder about a sport of some kind -- the yellow bill
> was striking, like a grackle's pale eyes, and I haven't found anything
> yet that seems remotely possible.  Just for giggles I'm going to look
> in my book of British birds...
>
> Thanks,
> David