Written by: Nicola Veclani
2026
Sometimes, all it takes is looking up to turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary encounter. At Golf Club Milano, an elegant Northern Bald Ibis was spotted perched in an old cherry tree. Two bright blue GPS trackers on her legs caught the attention of a member of staff, who used a wildlife-tracking app to discover that she was Liesl, a female Northern Bald Ibis (ID 812).
Once extinct in Europe, the Northern Bald Ibis is now the focus of ambitious conservation and reintroduction programmes. The European Waldrapp conservation project is helping to restore populations across Europe, including through innovative techniques such as using ultralight aircraft to guide young birds along migration routes.
Raised and released near Lake Constance, Liesl has travelled more than 1,500 kilometres and recently chose Golf Club Milano and the surrounding Monza Park as places to feed and rest, alongside visits to other locations in Italy and Switzerland. Her presence highlights the potential for golf courses and their surrounding green spaces to provide valuable feeding and resting habitat for wildlife moving through the wider landscape.
An unexpected encounter between holes became an opportunity to learn more about an extraordinary conservation story, demonstrating how everyday observations on the golf course can inspire greater curiosity, awareness, and appreciation of the natural world.
