Argyll has the richest biodiversity in the UK. Its wide range of natural resources together produce and support the richest and most diverse examples of land, freshwater, marine and coastal habitats and species.

Many of these are there to b e seen by the observant passer-by and the patient watcher. Some – like the court jesters of the bird world – the puffins – live in thriving colonies, graciously waiting to entertain those taking trips to see them.

Argyll has six of Scotland’s National Nature Reserves, which are managed by Scottish Natural Heritage. These are detailed in the areas above where they are found but include:

• the seashore hill woodland of Glasdrum with its rare butterflies;
• the puffin-inhabited basault-columned Isle of Staffa;
• the four peaks of the Ben Lui reserve with their amazing saxifrages, mosses and lichens;
• the bogs and pools of Moine Mhor with its hen harriers, curlews and dragonflies;
• the ancient deciduous wood of Taynish whose ferns and mosses support over 300 species of plants, 20 kinds of butterflies and a rich marine life on the loch shores;
• and Loch Lomond with its oak-wooded islands and fen, grassland and swamp woodlands.

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You may see, depending on where you are in Argyll, things like:

• birds from Sea Eagles (Britain’s largest and rarest bird of prey, with a wingspan of up to 8ft) and Golden Eagles, to Shearwaters and Guillemots, Puffins and Lapwings, Corncrakes, Woodpeckers, Tree Creepers, Gold Finches and Chiff Chaffs
• butterflies including rarities like the Chequered Skipper, unique to this area and the Pearl-bordered fritillary
• animals like red and roe deer, highland cattle, pine martens, red squirrels
• mammals like sea and river otters, whales, dolphins, porpoises, common and grey seals
• a wide variety of flora including rare orchids and the very rare Orchis, Spiranthes Romanzoffiana, first recorded at Uragaig in Colonsay in 1930

Interestingly, a 2003 NFP System Three Poll found that 51% of the Scottish population said that environmental issues will influence the way they vote.