Jerry Friedman

I'll pass on the blackbird. There's no overall distinction between hawks and eagles except size, but Bald Eagles have rather short tails and Harris's Hawks have rather long ones. Your bird looks like a juvenile Harris's Hawk to me.

It does kind of look to me like a light band across the tail. Wish I had more experience with Rough-legs.

Yes (not speaking for @DLecy), black with a lot of white on the head and white mottling on the breast, the classic white tail with a dark tip and mottling, and conspicuously mismatched tail feathers. Harlan's are quite variable, but this one is, as DLecy said, straightforward.

Old pictures: Leaning Northern, with those very heavy markings but white throat (heavily outlined). Soaring: A bit lightly marked for Northern, especially the patagials? But Western should be rare in your area. Dark throat suggests it's not Eastern. Northern? I'm not sure at all that that's the same as the soaring bird, which has a little notch on the bottom edge of its dark throat that I don't see on this one. Also this one's dark subterminal tail band seems heavier. But I could be wrong. Hope you didn't want a definitive answer.

Ferruginous wouldn't have the strong bellyband or the yellow legs. Unfortunately, from this angle you can't see some field marks for Krider's: pale base of the tail, whitish primaries strongly contrasting with secondaries, pale patagial marks, lots of white on the back. The people at Raptor ID on Facebook call birds Eastern that are significantly whiter than this, so I think this is better for an Eastern (borealis).

Me too, but the body shape and head proportions seem to rule out Cooper's, so I tentatively picked the one that seemed less off.

Sharpie: Small head and short neck (especially in the second picture), tail maybe shortish, broad chest and narrow "hips". Coop: Straight leading edge of wings, apparently unstreaked belly, broad white tail tip. Counting structure as a touchdown and plumage as a field goal, Sharpie wins, 14-13! At least I learned that spreading the undertail coverts isn't just a spring thing. Do NOT take my scoring method seriously.

Oops. Ignore.

I also have one in the "close-up" thread.

Wilson's, obviously. Lucy's can be Mesquite Warbler, or Little Gray Warbler.

You're on it! Sorry about the breeding-male bias, but let me begin my campaign for "Black-and-Burning Warbler".

As long as we get Yarmulked Warbler, I'm fine with it.

I wrote on Facebook, "Another one from Whatbird, taken 10/31/23 near Boynton Beach, Florida, by dragon49. Used by permission. The photographer has put it on eBird as falcon sp, but I'm wondering whether it can be identified as a Merlin or an American Kestrel. I thought the length of the tail and the "string of pearls" on the trailing edge of the wings suggested Kestrel, but since others thought it looked a bit better for a Merlin, I hope you'll explain why I'm wrong." Brian Rusnica wrote, "I comp'd together a couple of somewhat similar Merlin/Kestrel "from behind" frames from my library with your bird, which I do think is an American Kestrel, mostly due to the wing shape which to me appears longer, thinner and less angular than a Merlin."

The bird with its wings raised in your second picture is a Black-bellied Plover because of the dark "wingpits". No doubt people with more experience can identify the others from more subtle features, but they all look the same to me. I'm guessing those little geese are Cackling because of the small bills and steep foreheads, but absolutely wait for others.

This was the right place for you to respond. Double-crested Cormorants nest in trees, so they can take off from trees. Maybe it would have needed to climb higher--I don't know whether it could do that. Anyway, I'm glad it got away, with or without help.

Could someone tell me why I'm wrong in thinking the tail length and the light dots on the wing suggest a kestrel, please? And @dragon49, especially if no one tells me, do you mind if I upload the pictures to the Facebook Raptor ID group?

The "string of pearls" along the trailing edge of the wing, and the tail (from the base of the wings to the top) longer than the wing chord, suggest American Kestrel to me.

I think the figures on the left are people with umbrellas. One umbrella is red.

Actually, I just learned that one of the poets didn't think they were geese. She just wanted geese in her poem. That works in poems but not in eBird lists.

I thought they were crows too, though ravens seem possible. The poets both mentioned geese.

I wish you hadn't brought that up. Now I'm trying to see whether it's a Great Cormorant in costume.

Does anyone get any vibes about the birds in the painting at https://www.rattle.com/ekphrastic/ ? No location, no date. I'm just curious because in the poetry workshop I'm in, two poets thought they were one taxon, and my first thought was a different one. (Sorry, if you want to enter the poetry contest, the deadline is tomorrow.)

Congratulations!