When thousands of cranes and wild geese fly into Schlabendorfer Lake under the glowing sunset, visitors to Sielmann's Wanninchen nature reserve are thrilled. Migratory birds love the shallow waters in the Lower Lusatian post-mining landscape as a resting place on their autumn journey south. Hundreds of whooper and mute swans enliven the area as early as February. Where coal was once mined, a charming landscape of forests, lakes, and dunes has emerged. Sand martins, wolves, hoopoes, and many other rare species have found new habitats here.
Since the end of open-cast mining in 1991, nature has been reclaiming the devastated areas. Rare plants such as sand everlasting, silver grass, and barley have settled in the sandy dunes left behind by the open-cast mining in what is now the Lower Lusatian Ridge Nature Park. Small creatures such as the sand earwig, hoverfly, and blue-winged sand locust thrive here.
A wolf family has also settled in the vast, undisturbed areas. The offspring of these shy four-legged creatures were confirmed in 2013 through camera traps and spotting with a spotting scope.
Approximately 270 hectares of Sielmann's Wanninchen Nature Landscape are valuable moorland areas. As natural CO2 stores, they are extremely important for climate protection. They are also a refuge for rare animals such as the two-striped damselfly, the alpine newt, and the common crane, as well as special plants such as the cross-leaved heath, sundew, and bog myrtle.