I response to Danna's message,

Your bird sounds like the archetypal hoary to me. In fact, your
description is of such a white bird that it could be hornemanni, rather
than exilipes. If you have Mullarney et al's recent field guide to the
Birds of Britain and Europe you might want to look in there since they
have superlative illustrations of hornemanni. I do not think that any of
the currently available US field guides treat the two redpoll species
(?) adequately. For a really good description and discussion of the ID
fine points Zimmers Birding the American West can't, in my opinion, be
beat.

Take a look at the photo below of a bird seen in NH a few days ago. Was
your bird whiter than this? The bird in the photo is claimed as a hoary
but I wonder about it.


http://users.rcn.com/mirick/Photos/hore1.jpg

Hector

Hector Galbraith PhD
Galbraith Environmental Sciences LLC
837 Camp Arden Rd., Dummerston, VT05301
802 365 9119 (phone)