Its That Time of Year

Here is a picture of our Christmas Tree. It only took us about five minutes to pick out, but it is a pretty good one if I say so myself. (Click Image to Enlarge)

Fresh Fish

This photo is of a small native Brook Trout caught up in North Conway, NH. While not the biggest trout out there, this was a beautiful fish caught in a small, beautiful brook. (click image to enlarge)

This photo is of a yellow perch that I caught in a small pond in Henniker, NH. Despite being a rather small fish, its a relatively big yellow perch. (click image to enlarge)

Fun with Guns

This picture is of my friend, Seth, shooting an Assault Riffle up at a farm in New Hampshire. You can see the bullet shell in the air to the right of the gun as Seth fires another round.  This gun does not mess around. (click image to enlarge)

This picture is of the ammo that Seth and the rest of us were shooting out of the Assault Rifle. As I said before, this gun does not mess around. (click image to enlarge)

Little Creatures

A chipmunk was trying to make a home in our lawn. While it was successful for most of the summer. It soon became lunch for my cat.

This picture was taken about 20 miles out to sea. It is of a small land bird that got blown offshore by a strong breeze, which often happens. It was taking a much needed rest, but given it took off the wrong way (out to sea, not towards land) I am not very hopeful it survived.

Midnight Garden

This picture was taken around midnight under the full moon earlier this summer. It is a picture of our flower garden in front of my family's house. (click image to enlarge)

A Grasshopper for Lunch

This picture is of a Wasp I saw flying around with a relatively large grasshopper in its grasp. It was trying to find its home, which was apparently under the shingles on the side of our house. (click image to enlarge)

Sunset Over Acadia

This picture was taken on the way in from fishing in downeast Maine. The mountains you can see in the distance are the Acadia National Park Mountains on Mount Desert Island. The two people in the photo are my father (right) and my brother. (click image to enlarge)

Floatin' Around

This picture is of a Common Tern sitting on a trawl buoy that was not attached to anything, or as we call it a "floater." It was calm enough that the ball did not roll around, allowing the tern to get a much needed rest. (click image to enlarge)

Sunset on the Atlantic

This picture was taken a few weeks ago on the ride in from fishing in the Gulf of Maine. While its usually tough to get a sunset shot on a moving boat, this one came out particularly well. (click image to enlarge)

Head Over Tail

This picture is of two Atlantic White-sided Dolphins leaping into the air on a calm afternoon. This picture was taken last summer about 20 miles off the coast of Maine while I was out tuna fishing. These dolphins are the most common dolphin we see while out fishing in the Gulf of Maine. (click image to enlarge)

Kārearea, The New Zealand Falcon

These pictures are of a pair of New Zealand falcons, or Kāreareas, feeding on a dead rabbit. The bird on the left seemed to be the dominant bird, as it kept feeding pieces of rabbit to the bird on the right. These picture were taken during a hike in Mt. Cook National Park, on the South Island of New Zealand. The last pictures are of the unbelievable view we got of Mt. Cook during our hike. As we were told by the locals, Mt. Cook does not often come out from behind the clouds, thus I was lucky to get such a great shot of the mountain and its glacier lake at its base.

Feeding Herring

These pictures are of herring we saw all over the surface one night on the edge of dark. In the first picture you can see all the bunches of herring around the boat in the distance. The second picture is a close up of the dark patches you can see in the first picture. The herring are feeding on some sort of small organisms that are up on the surface. This tends to happen right at dusk as well as during the night. In the third picture you can see a basking shark cruising around in the distance. While it looks scary and is 30 ft long, it has no teeth and is eating the same tiny organisms the herring are eating. (Click image to enlarge)

What We're Looking For

The first picture below is of a bunch of Northern bluefin tuna milling around on the surface late in the afternoon, around 6 PM. While the second picture is of a pair of bluefin tuna floating down wind on a calm day (the two dark wakes are the two individual fish). No one is quite sure why they come up to the surface, but as harpooners this is the only place we can catch them. I am not sure how many people will appreciate the sight of tuna as much as me, but if you do you will probably like these pictures. Both of these pictures were taken in the gulf of Maine, about 20 miles off the coast. (click image to enlarge)

Right into a Rainstorm

These pictures are of my father up in the tower as a rainstorm barreled towards our boat. Since there was no lightening,  we stayed in the tower until there was too much rain. As you can see in the first picture, there was a distinct line of wind in the distance. We had to hold on to your hats (literally) once the line of wind reached us. (Click images to enlarge)

Moby Dick

These are a few pictures of a sperm whale that we came across out fishing yesterday. This is only second sperm whale we've ever seen out fishing. They are very rare to see in the waters off of Maine. Unlike most whales that stick their back out of water when they release/take a breath, the sperm whale has its blowhole way up on the tip of his nose so when it lets out a breath of air it looks like it is blowing bubbles. Seeing these weird blows off in the distance is what made us suspicious it was not a normal whale. Sperm whales are notorious for not letting you get very close to them before diving down for hours. As you can see from the second picture we were not able to get very close to this one before it took its dive.  We are guessing it is around due to the fair amount of squid in the area, the sperm whales favorite food. The last picture (not taken by me, clearly) is just to give you an idea of what these strange, dinosaur-looking whales look like under the water. (Click images to enlarge)

Dodging a Storm On The Way In

These pictures were taken yesterday on our way in from tuna fishing (July 13th, 2011). As we started for home we encountered some unexpected thunderstorms. Luckily we were able to outrun/dodge the worst part of the storms. The first picture is of another storm off in the distance, making a path for the one that almost hit us. As you can see in the last four pictures, the heart of the second storm just missed us. (Click the images to enlarge)

These are a few pictures I have taken since tuna season started on June 1st. The first photo is of my father, Steve, going up on a bunch of about 15 Northern Atlantic Bluefin tuna. The second and third photo are of my brother, Chris, going up on two separate pairs of tuna (you can't see the second fish in the third photo, it is off to the left). My father and brother are standing out on a pulpit in these pictures, about 25.5' off the tip of the bow. In all the photos, there are purple blobs beneath the V-like wakes. Those are the individual tunas. In the second pictures, you can see the left fish very clearly. My first photo on the blog was similar to these photos but shows a much more detailed look at the tuna itself. 

Hungry Sea Hags

These photos were taken a few days ago while I was a cleaning one of the tuna we caught. These sea hags (commonly known as Greater Shearwaters) often follow the boat looking for scraps of guts and meat that get thrown over. These particular ones must have been pretty hungry as they got very close to the boat. (click image to enlarge)

Te Apiti Wind Farm, New Zealand

The pictures below were taken at Te Apiti Wind Farm in New Zealand. The fist picture was taken from the backside of the wind farm, while the second was taken from the frontside. In the second picture you can see a bunch of white dots on the hillside. Those are all sheep. Sheep outnumber people in New Zealand. (click images to enlarge)

New Years Recap-2010

It's the New Year, so why not have a recap of what I posted in 2010 and post the first picture of the year in the same post. The picture below was taken in the botanical gardens in Sydney Autralia last year. Below the picture is a list of what I shared with you all last year/ever. I hope you have enjoyed all the pictures so far. If you have any interest in ordering any prints don't hesitate to email me at bweiner21@gmail.com. Happy New Years!

September:
Gotta Start Somewhere
Sunrise in Southwest Harbor, Maine
A Trip to Tapotupotu Beach, New Zealand
Bursting with Sulfur
A Lost Frog
A Small Swarm of Mosquitos
Fin and Tail

October:
A Stack of Rocks
Scanning the Ocean
A Frond of Ponga Tree Fern
The Silver Lining Goes For a Sunset Cruise
Baby Geese
Herring Carrier Ship
My Grandfather's Garden
Steaming In
Stormy Seas
Lined Up
Sinking Away
Close to Home
Weapon of Choice
Lake Taupo Sunset
An American Goldfinch

November:
The Bean
Boon Island Light
Mt.Tauhara Hike, New Zealand
Moonrise
Harpooning Sequences


December:
My First Turkey
A Young Humpback
A Pod of Pilot Whales
The Swell of Earl
A Lone Giant