Nick Pulcinella

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Nick Pulcinella, a long time contributor to Pennsylvania Ornithology, is the 2009 Earle Poole Award winner. Nick was presented the award at the PSO annual meeting in Morgantown.

Perhaps Nick’s most notable contribution to Pennsylvania Ornithology is his tenure as the Chief Editor of Pennsylvania Birds from 2002 to 2007. Playing catch-up at the start, Nick brought the back to a timely publication schedule. He also introduced the color photo cover, pioneered the effort to add to the photographical content, and pushed to improve the content of the articles submitted for publication. For many years Nick was also the Rare Birds Editor for PA Birds, and has contributed many articles to PA Birds.

Nick has also served in several capacities for the Pennsylvania Ornithological Records Committee (PORC), the organization that maintains the Official List of Birds of Pennsylvania. Nick served as Chairman from 1994 to 1998 and continues as the non-voting secretary.

Nick has also contributed as a bird-bander and author. It’s not uncommon to find Nick on the scene when a wandering Selasphorus hummingbird makes an appearance in fall. Nick’s book, Birds of Delaware County, has been praised as one of the finest county-level publications in the state. With this publication Nick received the Witmer Stone Award from the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club for best publication in 1999.