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Eastern Kingbird.

My guess based on the kinked necks would be Double-crested Cormorant (or Neotropic?)

They’re all swallows, not swifts. Personally I would not identify these to species. Not enough to go on. I’d let ‘em go.

You've got Summer Tanagers!

Double-crested Cormorants. Neotropic Cormorants have much more compact head/neck profile in flight. These birds appear "front-heavy" due to longer necks and shorter tail, indicated DCCO. NECOs appear much more balanced in flight.

Trip Report: https://ebird.org/tripreport/148049 New Species for my TN List: PABU, LETE, SAND, WWDO, UPSA, BEVI

Red-tailed Hawk. It looks like it is stunned to me, it's holding itself fairly well from what I can see from the photo. That being said, if it doesn't recover soon I would call a wildlife rehabilitation center. Here's what I found online for a place that will take a raptor near Seattle:

From what I know from my time volunteering at banding and from light research into Gull ID, there are two different widely used terminologies for aging birds, and both refer to the bird's plumage. Since every species has a different morphology and molt strategy, terms like "juvenile", "immature", and "adult" can mean different actual ages for different species, in terms of how we look at age in humans. This is why "juvenile" and "immature" both refer to young birds, but mean different things. When we would mark down the age of a bird, we would use HY for hatch-year, SY for second year, and usually after that we would use ASY for after second-year, since by this time most species just repeat the same molt cycle.

And, of course, it’s hard to bird a lot when you’re 13 years old and busy with school and all.

Looks like a Yellow Warbler to me.

Make sure to study up on wing shape between swifts and swallows. Black Swifts in particular have a very diagnostic wing shape. These birds don’t come close to Black Swifts. Flight style is notably different too. These are best left as swallow sp.

I don’t have any experience with this ID, but I will say that the default assumption should always always always be Semipalmated, unless a bird clearly stands out as being different, and even then, you need to be very careful. On a side note, I believe my uncle took part in finding the first Orange County record of Common Ringed Plover.

Got a random inspiration yesterday to commit to a day trip out to Memphis today. I’m very glad I did! I got a fantastic, though brief, look at a singing male Painted Bunting (lifer!!) at sunrise, then racked up 5 more new species for my state list throughout the day. I’m still going, stopping for food right now, I’ll link the trip report here tonight. And, as a bonus, I’ve seen tons of Mississippi Kites!

Yep! Sure looks like a Lincoln's to me!

So busy at work I havnt even checked this thread for months, here’s my fav

They are Bobolinks.

rarely ever see them perch

This topic has evolved into a different topic, but I'll add on since the plane has already left the hangar. As for Orange County, I don't know the intricacies of the birding there. I agree on points both @AlexHenry and @IKLland have made in that there are underbirded areas of any county. There are also known hotspots that get birded regularly. This is usually for a reason. For example, in Marin, The Outer Point, and coastal lagoons like Abbotts and Rodeo are hugely productive. Other good birds have been found at a variety of spots around the county, but the likelihood of a Willow or Wood Warbler showing up in some swag city park 30 miles inland is much slimmer (and if it did, nobody would be there to find it anyways 😉). But, and this is huge but, while vagrants and rare birds are a huge draw for birders, and their presence or lack thereof is often how we quantify a "good" or productive hotspot/location, all bird data is valuable. There is an eBird reviewer in Lincoln County, OR who has a fairly well known blog, and she actively tries to fill in gaps in eBird data in her county. Now, has she found any earth-shattering rarities?! Not to the best of my knowledge. But, she has found many good birds, some fairly unexpected ones, and more importantly, she has added valuable data to the status and distribution of birds in her county. As for Orange County, it's Southern California. I can't imagine there is some totally amazing unreal hotspot/migrant trap/mind-blowing park that nobody has ever heard of or birded. SoCal has been birded pretty hard for the last 40-50 years. But, I would love for you to prove me wrong. A great example of a new place being pioneered recently is Bear Divide in the Angeles National Forest. It has only recently been "discovered" as a premier spot for west coast passerine migration. Official counts didn't start there until 2021. I have also heard rumors that Richard Crossley has found a secret unreal canyon/ridge in Southern California somewhere where the viz-mig crushes Bear Divide. Something like these two examples are not discovered by accident. People are using maps, satellite imagery, tracking methodologies, and our understanding of patterns of bird migration to figure out where to check. I suggest you do the same as much of this data is astonishingly accessible to the general public, in a way it was not just 5-10 years ago.

People gonna do what people gonna do. At the end of the day you can’t control how other people bird. But - you can control where you bird. Maybe you’ll put some new south OC hotspots on the map, especially as you gain more birding experience and get older and are able to drive. Getting into birding young is great and will allow you to develop a good base of fundamentals which will help you a lot in the future. Just keep doing your thing and hope that eventually other people will notice and start to follow suit. It might take a long time, but in the mean time look on the bright side - your coverage of south OC is probably pretty valuable data if that area is underbirded, and less competition means you have a better chance of being the initial finder of rare birds in your area.

Waterton lakes was squirrely this week.

I agree with Solitary for the larger bird. The others might be Pectorals

Yeah. He’s married to my dad’s sister, Sue. I might have had some influence on their family getting into birding… Yeah, it has the 3rd most eBird checklists of any county in California. And if you consider the fact that LA and San Diego are like 5x the size geographically, Orange might be the single county with the best coverage in the state. Speaking of coverage, Trinity and Kings need some help.

I believe you have at least one Solitary Sandpiper in there. Possibly some other stuff, but I’m not sure

I guess I am a copy cat

Calvin Hardcastle

It’s an Eastern Wood-Pewee, with those long primaries and lack of an eye ring.

Sadness, my dreams of Black Swift have been destroyed.

It could be taking a drink, or taking bugs off the water.

Went back to Lake Herman SP with my mom! We had a nice walk around the lake(forgot our water bottles, not nice), good weather and no bugs! https://ebird.org/checklist/S145822111

House Wrens

Don't know what it is about them. I see them pretty often in the winter & I've yet to get a shot of one that I was happy with.

I’ve already discovered a park this summer that looks amazing for fall migration. Hopefully I’ll be able to do so with that place. absolutely! Of course I’d rather there be no underbirded part of the county, but since there is, I’m glad I live in it. I’m the only birder in my town.

Yeah. The shame is that south OC is just as diverse as north county-in fact it’s likely more diverse-and it’s still not being birded.

Juveniles

Yellow, I think Prothonotories have black beaks, even in young ones...but I have been known to be wrong....LOL

Here’s the final trip report. Did pretty well considering I didn’t visit the locations I wanted to on Monday. The biggest misses were Red and Cassia Crossbill, Boreal Owl, Three Toed Woodpecker, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Evening Grosbeak. Did have a few birds I wasn’t expecting, Northern Pygmy owl, dusky grouse, pinyon jay and juniper Titmouse . all photos are up except the last two days and my audio recordings. https://ebird.org/tripreport/145746

Juvenile Snowy Plover https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/596903501

Back in the game (I think I missed three weeks). Most of my photos are fairly average in-flight shots so I went with this one from March 2021 (snow still on the ground). Heavy crop. I watched it for some time hunting over a field and it finally snagged a mouse or a vole (hidden in the grass). Interesting how different these birds can appear.

Yesterday

Indigo Bunting vs Blue Grosbeak

Fork-tailed vs Ashy Strom-Petrels