Charleston Living Magazine Nov-Dec 2023

lowing in the wind and beady eyes darting
back and forth.
Donnelly has been birding since 2015
and has jumped into the hobby wholeheartedly,
even working with local schools to provide
information about local birds to students. A
real estate agent by day, he previously worked
on a golf course and became enamored with the
beauty of the outdoors.
He started Holy City Birding in 2022, offering
group tours, writing a blog about birds
and started a Bird Patch Club, where he creates
unique patches of birds spotted on tours to mail
to attendees. During his excursions, both with a
group and solo, Donnelly enters the bird species
and number of birds seen into EBird, an app on
his phone that uses citizens as data scientists to
help track bird species and inspires research on
various species and habitats.
Yet, seeing and identifying birds is just one
part of the entire experience. Fringe benefits include
enjoying the outdoors and slowing down
to take in the natural world.
Birding Around the Lowcountry
As a Mt. Pleasant resident, Donnelly’s favorite
place to bird watch in the winter is the
pedestrian bridge The Pitt Street Bridge near
the Old Village.
“It's got such beautiful views and it's always
active. All the seasons have different birds. Winter
especially is a neat one there because you have
the potential of seeing some wintering ducks or
grebes, which is kind of like a duck. There are so
many different birds you can see there and it's
such an accessible place,” Donnelly said.
Another place that he enjoys is Fort
Moultrie National Park on Sullivan’s Island and
the Sullivan's Island Trail.
Going out with a birding guide is a great
way to have an immediate bird dictionary and
especially useful for those new to birding to
learn about the species and their behavior and
to get excited about birding.
The Charleston County Parks offers early
morning bird walks at the Caw Caw Interpretive
Center in Ravenel from 8:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. Wednesdays
and Saturdays in November and December.
(Learn more and sign up at www.ccprc.org.)
Donnelly said winter birding is great in
dense forest areas like Caw Caw Interpretive
Center in the winter as less leaves on trees
make spotting birds—especially songbirds—a
bit easier.
About 20 miles Southwest of Charleston,
the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge has
(Right, top to bottom): Cooper's hawk, Shem
Creek Park; Eastern Phoebe, Pitt Street Bridge;
Hermit Thrush, Fort Moultrie; (Opposite): Hooded
Mergansers, Pitt Street Bridge; Cedar Waxwing,
Fort Moultrie; Greater Scaup, Charleston Harbor,
Battery
72 | CharlestonLivingMag.com