Dot Blakely

Dot Blakely has been fascinated and in awe of birds since she was knee high to a daisy in her home town of Bangor in County Down. As a child, she remembers her dad taking her round the catle grounds, pointing out a robin's nest in a tree trunk and telling her never to look in or disturb a nesting bird. That was the start of it. Since then she has been transfixed by the behaviour, habits, spectacle, colour and antics of birds in Northern Ireland, from long-legged waders in our rivers and loughs to cheeky robins in parks and gardens and majestic whooper swans and geese in sheltered ponds and flood plains. For the last thirty years Dot has shared her extensive knowledge with eager birders and novices alike, through classes – at Queen’s University, Castlereagh College and Belfast Met – walks and talks, and on her hugely popular regular radio appearances on BBC Radio Ulster’s Your Place and Mine.