Dale Walters | Dale Walters - Botanist & Writer

Blowing the Cobwebs Away on Castle Hill

Aug 1, 2025 | Nature

The tide is in and instead of my usual walk down the Paragon steps and on to the beach, I walk through Cob Lane, turn right at Equinox and follow St Julian’s Terrace down to the Harbour and the bottom of Castle Hill. The wind whistling up St Julian’s Terrace is cold,...

Meadow Pipits, Turnstones, and Pigeons Showing Off

Dec 1, 2018 | Nature

I had just trudged my way up the steps to Castle Hill from the beach and was huffing and puffing past the bandstand when I saw what I thought was a rock pipit hop off the wall and disappear. Peering over the wall, I spotted the pipit, along with two others, hopping...

Plant vs Predator – how plants deal with slugs!

May 30, 2017 | Plant Science

Spring is a wonderful time to be in the garden. New growth is everywhere, offering the prospect of colour and fragrance as the summer approaches. But we humans are not the only ones to love this. For our invertebrate neighbours all those fresh, juicy leaves present a...

A Shag on the Rocks

Jan 1, 2017 | Nature

It’s not what you might think. I was peering over the wall a few yards to the right of the new lifeboat house when I noticed something moving on the rocks below, just above the crashing waves. It quickly became obvious that it was either a cormorant or a shag. Looking...