There is no chance of a birdie or an eagle any more. But there are skylarks, short-eared owls, avocets and curlew.<\/p>\n
Sandilands<\/a>, a former golf course on the Lincolnshire coast, has been transformed by the National Trust into a 2km-long nature reserve with wetlands, wading pools, rough grassland and coastal scrub.<\/p>\n A little ringed plover. The new reserve opens to the public on Saturday but the birds have already flocked in: little ringed plovers<\/a> and avocets nested this summer as soon as fairways and bunkers were turned into shallow pools and islands for shore and marsh birds. Marsh harriers have been hunting over the reserve, with water rail, sandwich terns and spotted redshank also flying in.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been super-exciting to see the transformation from a boring old golf course \u2013 sorry golfers,\u201d said Katie Scott, an area ranger for the National Trust<\/a> at Sandilands. \u201cIt was quite flat and the grass was cut when it was a golf course but now with all the mounds and undulations \u2013 and just by not mullering the grass \u2013 so many new plant species have come up. It just goes to show that nature is always there waiting to push through.\u201d<\/p>\n Area ranger Katie Scott walking with her dog Checo at the Sandilands nature reserve. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Scott said there were a few local people who mourned the loss of the course, which was founded in 1894, but the private club went into liquidation in 2018 before the trust stepped in, ensuring the coastal site was not developed or turned into a caravan park. What was once a site only accessible to a few hundred golf club members is now open to everyone.<\/p>\n Sandilands is on the edge of Mablethorpe<\/a>, a deprived seaside town, and the trust has been deluged with offers of support and help from local people, with 50 already volunteering on the new reserve.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as the office cabin was put on site, people came knocking saying they wanted to get involved,\u201d said Anstee Stratigou, the community, participation and volunteering manager for the trust. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked so hard with the local community talking about the work we\u2019re doing and encouraging them.\u201d<\/p>\n Anstee Stratigou at the Sandilands nature reserve. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n One volunteer, Sue Cushen, said: \u201cWhat\u2019s happened over the last few years here is remarkable and it is going to get better. I grew up around here and it was a pretty ordinary golf course to be fair. Now we\u2019ve got really nice nature on this part of the coast and the birds are coming back. It\u2019s great. It\u2019s also hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n Voluntary rangers Sue Cushen and Simon Sedan. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n As with many nature restoration projects, annual \u201cweeds\u201d such as thistle and ragwort are the first to colonise the disturbed ground and Cushen and fellow volunteers have spent much of the summer hand-pulling ragwort, \u201cour nemesis\u201d as she called it, to keep it under control.<\/p>\n Some local people complained about the number of thistles on the new nature reserve but Scott explained that they would boom for a year or two before being replaced by a natural cycle of perennial grasses and flowers. Green hay from a nearby Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust<\/a> reserve has been spread to establish local native species including wild carrot, yarrow, yellow rattle and red clover.<\/p>\n \u201cWe left the thistles this year and we had a massive explosion of painted lady butterflies,\u201d said Scott.<\/p>\n The entrance and cafe of the Sandilands nature reserve. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The coastal reserve, which includes a timber-framed community centre and cafe and an accessible pathway weaving through the long site, was originally coastal wetlands before the golf course was established, and as soon as shallow ponds were dug, reed and reed-mace sprouted up naturally.<\/p>\n A bird watching hut at the nature reserve. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The pools and marshes of Sandilands will become a mecca for birdwatchers with the reserve sitting within the internationally important \u201cEast Atlantic flyway\u201d, one of Europe\u2019s major migration routes. Every year, thousands of birds travel along Britain\u2019s east coast between Arctic and northern European breeding grounds and warmer wintering areas farther south. Rare migrants blown into Sandilands will find shelter in some of the 36,000 native shrubs, including sea-buckthorn, blackthorn and gorse, planted by the volunteers.<\/p>\n The National Trust hopes to reintroduce the rare natterjack toad once the pond habitat is ready. Photograph: imageBroker\/Farina Grassmann\/Getty Images\/imageBroker RF<\/p>\n
Photograph: Saverio Gatto\/Alamy<\/p>\n