Starting January 1st, 2011 Paul Riss is embarking on what birders call a “Big Year”. A Big Year is a self-imposed challenge for a birder to find as many species of birds in a calendar year. In 2011 there is even a movie coming out about some crazy birdwatcher’s Big Year. Who is Paul Riss and why is there a drawing of a tattoo here?
Paul Riss isn’t the stereotypical birder. At first glance he’s more of “an aging, lanky, punk rocker with an art gallery’s worth of tattoos and an iPod packed with music you’ll never hear on the radio.” He is an international-award winning art director, married with twins, and likes to do everything to the extreme. Paul isn’t your typical birder so he decided to not just do a “typical Big Year”.
What is The Punk Rock Big Year? – “It’s when a mohawked late 30s birder-punk tattoos the latin name of every bird he sees in 2011 on his body.” The tattoo (pictured above) will have an ongoing ribbon with all the Latin names of the birds Paul sees throughout the year.
Paul is planning on creating a documentary of the whole Punk Rock Big Year.
You can follow this endeavor on the official Punk Rock Big Year website
on Facebook
on Twitter @thepaulriss
Paul is doing exactly what we hope other birders will do. No, not tattoo their body and make a documentary about it. That’s Paul’s thing. Birders need to discover new ways to spread the joy of birding.
We wish Paul the best of luck on finding a ton of species and in creating the documentary and will update his progress as The Punk Rock Big Year progresses.
Paul Riss birding
Best of luck to him…think of all the birds he could see while he is sitting in the tatoo parlor chair though!
Just another dude stealing Nikon’s tag line of “birding on the edge”!
Thanks for the idea Birding is Fun! I never knew they had that tagline. Maybe they’ll sponsor me.