Angus and Dundee provides ample opportunity to enjoy the soothing and relaxing sound of birdsong and bubbling brooks. On the Angus coast, there is a fascinating array of birds, animals and plants along the Seaton Cliffs Nature Trail, Arbroath, which is part of the Angus Coastal Trail. Here, you may encounter primroses, violets or sea pinks, as well as seabirds such as fulmars and butterflies including common blue.

Care of the environment and the variety of wildlife natural habitats it supports falls, in many cases, to the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Their work, on show at the Montrose Basin, is both informative and well regarded. This reserve is difficult to beat for sheer numbers of birds. There are huge gatherings of swans from late summer, tens of thousnads of pink-footed geese in October and November and waders and ducks year-round. The RSPB have a similar observational facility at Loch of Kinnordy.

Both facilities offer child friendly facilities to spot ospreys, gulls, ducks, geese and grebes, from hides or viewing platforms. For horse lovers, a visit to the Mountains Animal Sanctuary for rescued horses, ponies and donkeys, set at Glenogil near Forfar, is inspiring and thought-provoking.

Also inland, you can see salmon leaping at the Rocks of Solitude near Edzell, and forest life around the beautiful Reekie Linn waterfall near Kirriemuir. The Angus Glens extend like long fingers from the rich lowlands towards the Cairngorm mountains. Corrie Fee National Nature Reserve is a new National Nature Reserve at the head of Glen Clova, and has some of Britain's finest communities of mountain plants and upland birds.