From Steam to Dream -Draft 2

From steam to Dream

nature a helping hand Deon

Working copy only Nov.2022

Giving

Warner

This is a draft working copy

Page left blank

Very close to the dual cariageway of the A303 busy with holiday trafﬁc travelling to Devon and Cornwall there is an inauspicios patch of land which through one man was destined to become a wild life haven . He regularly monitored the wild life in the area around Martock. He concieved the idea to turn this area back to nature. After several years of fruitless appeal a chance meeting with someone in authority

The Highways Agency, who manage the area, brought agreement of his proposal to bring nature back to the area. Then with a group of local enthusiats over they have nutured it back from, neglect, pollution and past exploitation into a small reserve.

The Triangle with restored pond

Now Barn Owls, Orchids, Moon moths, Kingﬁshers and much more are found where once oil polluted waterway, industrial waste and remnants of railway ballast and artifacts once littered the area,

This little booklet records through artistic skethes, made by that organiser, the life that has returned to this small patch of Somerset. It is a tribute to the dedication of the volunteers who have shown what can happen to a waste and derelect area of land if through the care and hardwork of an enthustic group the “doors are open” and nature is invited to return.

Introduction

Where trains once passed steaming here and there

No butterﬂies of ﬂowers but no one cared With Beeching ’twas all swept away Nature left bare, bereft , along that way

Then and now - Between Yeovil and Martock,

But now it’s different so good to know Where once was concrete rare ﬂowers grow Tufted Ducks on pond, dragon ﬂies dart To watch it all uplifts the heart

Martock Junction

My sketches all things there I’ve seen Where no longer go machines of steam Yellow necked mouse, blood veined moth Orchids, shepherds purse once lost Now returned to where they belong Could I but sketch that wrens’ song

A page of the recordings made of the ever evolving species of plants and animals of the reserve.

By 2021approximately 1000 recordings

Dion’s description of how he made his recordings.

E.G. Standing, listening and watching. Binoculars in hand. Sometimes having to return several times to ensure thhings were

Short-fruited Willowherb.

Black Berry

Hedge Bedstraw Great Willowherb (Codlings and cream). Smooth Hawksbeard

Pendulous Sedge

Commo n Spotted

Square-stemmed St Johns Wort

Common Ragwort.

Annual

Yorkshire Fog Cocksfoot Fog Ivy Fog Burnet Rose

Wild Angelica Common Centuary False Oats Grass Gipsy Wort Common Toadflax Tufted Vetch Perennial Rye Grass Meadow

Meadow Grass

Marsh Wound Wort Burnet Rose Agrimony Ragless Mayweed Field Penny Crest Corn Marigold Common Figwort Prickly Lettuce Tare Sea Storksbill

Honey Suckle Self Heal

Tare Common Century Evening Primrose Lark Spur Borage Birdsfoot Trefoil Arrowhead Fleablane Frogbit Wild Carrot

Black Medici Stinging Nettle Teasel Common Sowthistle Greater Bindweed Ground Elder Meadow Knapweed Pyramidal Orchid Water Mint

Elm Ash Hazel Oak Canary Grass Sun Spurge Timothy Field Maple Corkyfruited Water Dropwort Downey Willow Alder Crack Willow

Corn Chamomite Bush Vetch Lesser Pond Sedge Soft Rush Bristly Oxtongue Meadowsweet Sorrel Meadow Vetching Cleavers Goose Grass White Campion

Lungwort

Ransons (Wild Garlic) Sand Spurrey Yellow Oat Grass

Mountain Ash Walnut Cherry Beech Scotts Pine

Sweet Vetual Grass Barren Brome Sheep Fescue Meadow Foxtail Yorkshire Fog Rough Comfrey Black Bryony Holly Spindle Horse Chestnut

Mind Your Own Business

White Violet

Flag Iris Reed Mace

Woody Nightshade

Hemlock Flag Iris

Bind Weed

Goats Beard Jack goes to bed at noon Common Cinqfoil

Meadow Cranesbill FLag Iris Curled Dock Hogweed Southern Marsh Orchid Hemlock Water Droplet Dog rose

Water Plantain

Great Tussock Sedge

White Clover

Ragwort

Common Spike Rush

Flag Iris Yellow Rattle

Lesser Celandine

Water Crow Foot

Hoary Plantain

Narrow Leaved Plantain

Daisy Whitlow Grass

Lords and Ladies (Cuckoo Pint, Jack in the Pulpit, Wake Robbin)

Common Poppy

Snow Drop

Garlic Mustard Bush Vetch Primrose Cowslip Common Vetch Bougle Jew Berry Herb Robert Red Clover Ladies Smock Hairy Tare

White Dead Nettle

Hairy Nettle Crest Red Dead Nettle

Shepard’s Purse Chickweed Red Campion

Field Buttercup Black Thorn Groundsel

Beech Scots Pine Mind Your Own Business Mountain Ash Walnut Cherry Holly Spindle Horse Chestnut

Ransoms

Sheeps

Sand

Black Byrony

Barren Brome Yellow Oat Grass

Fescue Meadow Foxtail Yorkshire Fog Rough Comfrey

Spurrey Lungwort Sweet Vetual Grass

Oxeye Daisy Triquetrous Leek Mares Tail

Winter Crest

Foot

Lion Common Speedwell Marsh Marigold Creeping Forget Not Creeping Yellow Crest Celandine

Common

Cocks

Dandy

Common Vetch Sticky Mouse Ear Crab Apple Field Forget Me Not White Comfrey Way Faring Hawthorn Hedge Parsley

Tufted Ducks

Greater Spotted Woodpecker Starling Goldfinch Green finch Bull finch

Pied Wagtail Robbin Goldcrest

Dunnock

Fieldfare

Yellow Hammer (male) Reed Bunting (male) Linnet (male) Grey Wagtail Chiff Chaff Reed Warbler Blackcap (male) Lesser Whitethroat Kingfisher

Buzzard Sparrow Hawk Wood Pigeon Woodcock

Mallard pair Wood Sandpiper

Pheasant

Moorhen Snipe Herron

Jay Stock Dove Barn Owl Long Tailed Tit Carrion Crow Magpie

Tit

Chaffinch Great

House Sparrow Blue

Redwing

Thrush Wren

Blackbird Song

Common Rat Grey Squirrel Pigmy Shrew Bank Vole Yellow Necked Mouse Fox Rabbit

Common Shrew Wood Mouse Water Shrew Badger Mole Roe Deer Family

Grass snake (UK BAP Priority Species

Great pond snail Common Bithynia Wandering

Pea

Water

or

Water stick insect Damselfly larvae Water Scorpion Water measurer Whirlygig beetle Silver Water Beetle Emperor Dragonfly larvae Black tailed skimmer Pond Residents

Slow Worm (UK BAP Priority Species) Ramshorn snail

snail

Mussel

Boatman

Back swimmer

Smooth Newt (male)

Common Frog

Type to enter text

Palmate Newt (male)