Right at the heart of the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales, the Doethie valley runs north off the Pysgotwr which in turn runs down into the Tywi by the Dinas nature reserve; it is a rare valley in that there is no road or driveable track just a path used by walkers and mountain bikers between Troed-rhiw-ruddwen farm and Ty’n Cornel hostel around 10 km north. It is therefore a peaceful valley of remnant woodland, scattered hawthorns and acid grasslands; the emptiness only broken by the long whistle of an agitated kite or mewing of a territorial buzzard. On a stone crag high above, ravens move quietly back and forth to their nest.

The valley hawthorns were a favourite place for a pair or two of breeding merlins Falco columbarius but around 40 years ago pairs shifted to the edges of nearby conifer forests when they grew tall enough to support breeding crows as their empty nests are their favoured breeding sites. Today, nobody is very sure if they are still there, especially given that they may have been recently displaced by the increasing goshawk population; a fate similar to that of the once abundant breeding hobby Falco subbuteo population in the New Forest. The other factor is that there seems to be far fewer meadow pipits in the grasslands, their favourite prey, probably because of the spread of Molinia due to the cessation of sheep grazing in many areas of these mountains. There may also be a reduction in resident carrion crow numbers for the same reason. The problem is that nobody ever counted the pipits or the crows as they were always thought of as abundant and the merlins even when relatively common were difficult to find. We spent a week searching forest edges and valleys such as the Doethie in early April and found very little. Hopefully, more on the hunt for Welsh merlins after a second week of searching in early June.