We (Brits; English) are often mistaken for Americans, whether in Europe or in the USA! In California, this year, a bloke commented, confidently, to my husband, "You'll be from Texas then." Er, no ...

I can only think that it's our southwestern drawls.

Yes, it is all down to exposure. We can distinguish English regions and Scottish, Welsh and Irish (although we wouldn't be able to place the S, W and I regions), but, apart from southern US and hard NYC accents, all Americans sound the same! (Although Seattleites have a very pleasant 'soft' accent, I think.)

"Stale bear" would be more Austrian than English

naw it would be more Alaskan IMO

hetismij - can i tell the diff between northern and southern Welsh accents?

Heck no

but let me go out on a limb and say there are a lot more ll's and l's in northern Welsh spellings than in the south - right?

Welsh <i>spelling</i> doesn't vary with the accent, any more than English spelling does.