As a caveat to my last posting, I would like to say that the bird, as it
appears now, would best fit the description of a female McKay's Bunting.

However I've just examined some photographs of male Snow Buntings, and it
appears that some individuals, at least, do not show as much dark in the
back as the literature would have us believe there exists. I've also seen
evidence that the sexing of the two bunting species on the basis of scapular
appearance may not be as cut-and-dried as the literature states.

I'm still confident that the bird seen at the Iona Jetty in January was a
female McKay's but am now not entirely certain whether the bird photgraphed
there on March 2 is the same individual.

Regards,
Jason Rogers
Banff, AB
hawkowl at hotmail.com