Mick Green, Cambrian Mountains

“As a boy I started with the Observer’s Book of Birds and graduated to the Collins. This is my patch, Plynlimon in the Cambrian Mountains. A typical upland survey will be about 10 miles a day – the old method was to walk transects, straight lines, 200m apart, counting the birds ahead of you as you go, with two or three people walking parallel so you are always within 100m of everywhere. The method now is more random, you guess that you are walking within 100m of everywhere but you don’t have to walk in a straight line through a bog which makes it a bit easier to concentrate on birds!

“I try to think like a harrier or a merlin – where would it nest? A harrier likes thick heather, but they want to see out so it has to be on a gentle slope: you read the vegetation and the landscape. And then once in a while they surprise you; find a hen harrier in a bunch of bracken and think hey, you haven’t read the book!

“I’m currently doing curlew surveys in Montgomeryshire, counting the few remaining curlews and then looking for funding to do interventions – fox-proof fences around nests etc.

“I also walk with mates, we’re doing the Nuttalls – all the mountains over 2000ft – I’ve got four to go! It’s taken us to places you wouldn’t think of walking – from here I’d usually go up Cadair Idris or the Arans but this challenge takes me to these funny little peaks in the middle of nowhere.

“After three days in London I get a bit bonkers. The air is thick, you have to slice it!”

“A typical upland survey will be about ten miles a day… I try to think like a harrier or a merlin – where would it nest? ”