Our June speaker will be Michael Mandracchia from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. “My talk will be on the Wildlife of India, mostly its birds but will include some other wildlife that I've photographed while on birding trips in India.  I've visited India twice since 2006 (40 days total with about half of this time spent on birding tours). I will include some stories about the difficulties I had trying to photograph 3 of the 4 parrot species I encountered on my trips.”

You can view one of Mike’s trip reports at
www.travellingbirder.com and some of his favorite photos at
www.birdskerala.com. You can view a more extensive collection of his photos at the Kodak Gallery.

Mike’s bio:

Mr. Mandracchia is a 24-year employee of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, where he currently works in the Site Remediation Program’s Bureau of Industrial Site Remediation as a Site Remediation Technical Specialist. He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Manhattan College and a Master’s Degree in Ecology from Northeastern University.  Mr. Mandracchia has been leading birding trips in and around his home town of Jackson, NJ for the past 15 years.  He also does birding talks for local Libraries, Scouting Groups, Schools and other organizations. 

Mr. Mandracchia is a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) and a past president of both the Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals and his Local NJ Chapter.  For his activities in this field, especially for his leading training efforts in Essentials of Hazardous Materials Management Course at NJDEP, he was named the 2001 Hazardous Materials Manager of the Year, and then was the 2004 recipient of the  Special Achievements Award, and a five time recipient of the Champion of Excellence Award.  In 2003, he also was named a Fellow of the Institute of Hazardous Materials Management.

As a nationally recognized instructor for the Essentials of Hazardous Materials Management Course, Mr. Mandracchia was invited to Bangalore, India in 2006 and then again in 2008 to lead a team of Instructors in the first and second international presentations of this Course.  After each of these classes, Mr. Mandracchia extended his trips to go birding first in southern India (2006) and then western India (2008).  He will be speaking on the Wildlife of India that he encountered during these trips.