News from the Greater Bedminster Urban Nature Reserve

BS3 Wildlife Group is proposing several projects during 2023 under the general heading of Greater Bedminster Urban Nature Reserve. Some are listed below. These are community projects.

Photography Archive

Like the Amazon and the deep ocean, a big city is a special type of wildlife environment. Like them, it has seen a decline in numbers and variety of species over the last 50 years. As part of the campaign to reverse this decline, BS3 WG are calling upon local photographers to help to establish an archive of photographs and videos illustrating creatures to be seen in the early 2020s in our part of Bristol.

Where are the hedgehogs?

This previously common animal is now quite rare with a drop from an estimated 35 million in the UK 30 years ago to around one million now. But, there are still small colonies across the city. In Greater Bedminster, there are groups in key hubs such as Victoria and Greville Smyth Parks and that hedgehogs spread from there into neighbouring gardens, especially if people make them welcome by offering appropriate food, water and shelter. use the email: bs3.hedgehog.project@gmail.com

My Wild Rivers

Several Wildlife Groups have been working with the Bristol Avon Rivers Trust and have commissioned a report. This will tell BS3 WG what needs to be done to make the Malago/ Pigeonhouse Stream and Colliter’s Brook more friendly both for people and wildlife. These two rivers flow northwards from the hills to the south of Bristol and pass through, or under, Greater Bedminster and into the Avon New Cut.

My Wild Street

Conversations are already underway with residents in several BS3 streets. It’s great to make your garden more wildlife friendly, perhaps with a small pond, a pile of logs and some berry bushes, but it works even better if there are several gardens working together. Among the ideas are making small holes in fences so that hedgehogs, frogs and others can easily and safely move around and planting up front gardens with small nut and fruit trees to establish a ‘Food Forest’ and wildlife corridor. Would you like to cooperate with your neighbours on this idea?

A pain in the head!

“I GET normal headaches.” This is what someone told me the other day. I asked her what normal headaches were and she said one to two headaches per week. This started a whole conversation.

One to two headaches per week is more than 100 headaches per year. And she viewed that as normal. It was normal because everyone else at work had headaches, but some of her colleagues get them daily. Also, her headaches weren’t too bad and went quickly with painkillers. The problem here is that normal is being confused with common. It’s common for people to suffer regular headaches, but it’s not normal. One headache per year is one headache too many. It’s normal to have none. Needless to say, she was shocked when I said I didn’t get headaches.

What are headaches? Any pain is your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. Whether it’s a low level headache or an intense migraine, your body is communicating that something is out of balance. A lot of people associate them with eye strain from staring at a computer or dehydration.

The most common causes are stress levels and tension in the top of the neck. When stressed, your fight or flight system kicks in, which causes your shoulders to rise and head to go forward. This puts tension through the shoulders and neck. The build up can remain over time and lead to trapped nerves and headaches. Painkillers are like putting a sticker over your engine warning light. The warning goes away but the problem remains. A way to address headaches is good posture, especially at your desk; exercise; drink plenty of water; and manage stress levels well, whether that’s with holidays, meditation, walks in nature or changing the environment that’s stressing you. The obvious other way is to remove the tension and any trapped nerves at the top of your neck, and chiropractic is the best way to do that.

Charles Herbert, Kasa Chiro

Telephone: 0117 370 2680 www.kasachiro.com