Local birding

Work kept me in for most of the day today, but I did manage to sneak for an hour late afternoon (not the best time time of day, admittedly).
I took a stroll down to Government House and had a trundle around the woodland path, to the rear of the building. The bluffs and garry oaks here really do help conjure up visions of lost vagrants and weary northbound migrants... we'll have to see about that! 
The place was actually quite birdy and alongside the common chestnut-backed chickadees, bushtits, Anna's hummingbirds and the like, there were still good numbers of ruby-crowned kinglet and a pair of yellow-rumped warbler busily gleaning insects from the emergent buds.
Red-breasted nuthatch, brown creeper and northern flicker all kept me entertained and several smart golden-crowned sparrows looked neat in their newly acquired breeding finery.

Oh, and our first Anna's hummingbird came to the feeder this morning. Hopefully, we'll see more hummer action - it's been a bit slow thus far... 

Sometimes, Good Guys Don't Wear White

Regarding yesterday's gull - I was grateful to receive word from two top local birders, Jeremy Gatten and Ian Cruickshank, that the bird is indeed a mew gull - but simply a heavily worn bird. I have to say that I have never seen as bleached-out a worn first year common gull, and I didn't realise that mew gulls could appear so strikingly pale. The pale brown/cream primaries really threw me, hence my assumption that it was a leucistic bird.

Thanks Jeremy and Ian - your comments were most welcome - I'll certainly be looking at 1st cal mew gulls more closely from here on in! As they say, every day's a school day...
Here are a couple more pics of the bird for those who might want to see some other shots.

White-winged gull conundrum

Taking a break from work this afternoon, I headed off to Cattle Point to see what I could find.
Offshore, there were good numbers of pigeon guillemot plus a handful of rhinoceros auklets. A few surf scoters and harlequins were kicking around.
A small flock of a dozen or so spectacular long-tailed duck flew in and landed on the water.
7 brant were flying around offshore.
Searching the shoreline for waders I could only find a group of 13 black turnstone, and at one point I heard a greater yellowlegs but failed to locate the bird itself.
Pelagic cormorants were perched up, posing nicely - hence the accompanying pic.
The only passerine of note was a savannah sparrow, seen feeding along the tide rack.

Among the muddle of gulls by the slipway, I spotted what I initially thought might be a Kumlien's gull but on closer inspection, I wasn't convinced.
Some of its plumage features suggest that species, but its small size, head shape and dainty bill had me leaning toward a leucistic mew gull...?

Please have a look at these photos and see what you think. It's certainly a curious looking individual.
I'd be interested to see what others think.