Today, while driving north of Woodstock, VT on Rte 12, I watched a flock of 150-200 starlings (and a few crows) whirl and swoop across hayfields on both sides of the road.  The fields belong to a working dairy farm, so flocks of blackbirds and pigeon/doves are common. 

What wasn't common was the one starling that was different, very different...

Something spooked them and the big flock flew across the road in front of me, and I could see there was one that just didn't "look right..." While everything about the bird said "starling," there was the white tail, flashing in the sunlight....

Remember, this is Vermont, where most things are all the same.... (Woodstock's high school is "The Home of the WASPS...")

I spent 20 minutes, stopped on the side of the road, flashers on, windows down, scanning the flock for a better view.  Every time a car or truck went by, the flock would gather itself together and fly to another spot.  Every time, I could see the bird in flight, white tail so evident. And, every time they landed, I'd loose it in the tall grass or behind a hummock or down in a hollow.

After forty minutes, I gave up, my lunch was over and I had to get back to work.

Later, I Goggled: "starling with white tail" and out of the 675,000 results, I found there are European Starlings that sometimes have white tail feathers.  There were even a couple of pictures of birds from England.

This was the first time I've seen a starling that didn't "look like a starling."  I've been to coastal, winter, salt mash blackbird roosts where there have been 100 thousand blackbirds, and I've never once had I noticed one that was "different."

Location: Woodstock, Vt;  intersection Rt 12 and Stage Rd; by the Bassest Farm.

Otto