Skylarks and sandwich terns among new birdies on reserve created from ‘boring old golf course’

There is no chance of a birdie or an eagle any more. But there are skylarks, short-eared owls, avocets and curlew.

Sandilands, 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.

The new reserve opens to the public on Saturday but the birds have already flocked in: little ringed plovers 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.

“It’s been super-exciting to see the transformation from a boring old golf course – sorry golfers,” said Katie Scott, an area ranger for the National Trust at Sandilands. “It was quite flat and the grass was cut when it was a golf course but now with all the mounds and undulations – and just by not mullering the grass – so many new plant species have come up. It just goes to show that nature is always there waiting to push through.”

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.

Sandilands is on the edge of Mablethorpe, 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.

“As soon as the office cabin was put on site, people came knocking saying they wanted to get involved,” said Anstee Stratigou, the community, participation and volunteering manager for the trust. “We’ve worked so hard with the local community talking about the work we’re doing and encouraging them.”

One volunteer, Sue Cushen, said: “What’s 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’ve got really nice nature on this part of the coast and the birds are coming back. It’s great. It’s also hard work.”

As with many nature restoration projects, annual “weeds” 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, “our nemesis” as she called it, to keep it under control.

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 reserve has been spread to establish local native species including wild carrot, yarrow, yellow rattle and red clover.

“We left the thistles this year and we had a massive explosion of painted lady butterflies,” said Scott.

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.

The pools and marshes of Sandilands will become a mecca for birdwatchers with the reserve sitting within the internationally important “East Atlantic flyway”, one of Europe’s major migration routes. Every year, thousands of birds travel along Britain’s 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.

The transformation was funded thanks to £2m from Mablethorpe Towns Fund, along with £1.5m from National Highways and £200,000 from the government’s shared prosperity fund, as delivered by East Lindsey district council.

Highland ponies will be introduced to the site to provide conservation grazing and the trust hopes to reintroduce the rare natterjack toad once the pond habitat is ready.

While the Guardian visited, a skein of pink-footed geese flew over, and birders reported seeing black-tailed godwits on the site, with gannets, red-throated divers and shearwaters passing just out to sea.

Martin, a day tripper visiting the new reserve from Melton Mowbray with his dog, Alma, said: “Walking between the pools and seeing all the wildlife is lovely, it really is. It’s so peaceful.”