Rimmed by fertile lowlands along its North Sea shore, threaded by fish-rich rivers and rising to moors and mountains, this area has a huge variety of habitats in which to watch wildlife. You could begin in the heart of its biggest city.

Look out over Aberdeen harbour, especially in the early part of the year, and you might see some of the botttlenose dolphins that use the inshore waters between here, Inverness to the east and Fife to the south. In summer, you could meet some of the animals again on boat trips from different harbours along the Moray Firth coast.

Head inland and Muir of Dinnet, between Ballater and Aboyne, has gorgeous birchwoods beside heathland and open water. The Dinnet Lochs host hordes of greylag geese and other wildfowl in winter, as does the Loch of Strathbeg between Peterhead and Fraserburgh.

North of Aberdeen, near Newburgh, the estuary of the River Ythan has a road along much of its length. Watch thousands of eider ducks feeding on mussel beds off Newburgh beach, then move upstream to see wading birds such as curlew in summer, golden plover in autumn and lapwing in winter.

Close to the Ythan, the Sands of Forvie are like a Scottish desert - amazing for both sand dunes and flowers. Walk tracks from the Forvie Centre to see some of the more than 350 kinds of flowering plants that have been recorded here. These are great nectar sources for many different butterflies, moths, bees and other insects. Forvie also has the biggest breeding group of eider ducks in Britain among its dunes and moorland. In winter, parties of snow buntings feed among the dunes and in summer, shelduck nest in the old rabbit burrows here.

Along 'Royal' upper Deeside, Glen Tanar near Aboyne and Mar Lodge near Braemear have some of Scotland's largest surviving native pinewoods. There's scope to see red squirrels and crossbills here at any time of the year. Above the old woods, the country's finest moors (watch for red grouse on rocks and tussocks) purple the hillsides in August and September. Come October, travel the many quiet minor roads in Deeside and Starthdon to hear red deer bellowing in the rut.