I have a very punctual Merlin in my neighborhood, been there for about 2
weeks. He/she never stays long, the longest has been about 10 minutes,
though the median is probably 2 minutes. 6:30 PM comes around, it flies
in, chases some crows around while they chase it around (some good
dogfights here), and then leaves again. Once it sat preening for about
10 minutes before leaving. It may be there in the morning, too (but I'm
not much of an early-bird). Always flies in from the Northeast, and then
heads South-southwest. I'm assuming he's en route to a night roost.

I live in the Madrona district (in Seattle, for non-Seattle Tweets), and
if you were to fly up over the hill, the biggest landmark sticking up is
the neighbors 2 redwoods, which have dead tops. I suppose that's why
this is a popular spot for neighborhood birds.

Mike Smith
University of Washington
whimbrel at u.washington.edu