Alice's Restaurant---A Photo Tour
7 December 2024
Much of the story takes place in the towns of Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and Lee, in Berkshire County in western Massachusetts. I visited many of the locations mentioned and photographed them. Enjoy! (All of the photographs on this page or linked to, except for ones embedded in other pages, are mine, and all with the obvious exception of the Whitehall Street pictures were taken in those towns in the Berkshires.)
Our story starts in Stockbridge, where the restaurant was located. Of course, that wasn't the name of the restaurant, only the name of the song… (Sadly, Alice died shortly before Thanksgiving 2024.) But there really was a restaurant there, though it's now gone. It really was around the back, and, per the map, about half a mile from the railroad track.
The plot, though, begins at the former church that Alice and her husband lived in. It's now the Guthrie Center, complete with red VW Microbus.
Note the railroad crossing sign at the left of the last photo—that's the same train line that ran near the restaurant. In fact, the Van Deusenville station was once right across the road; you can still see the remains of the foundation of the station. (Could Alice have commuted by train to her restaurant? It seems unlikely. In 1964, passenger service on that line was cut back to two trains per week. Also, while I haven't been able to learn when the Van Deusenville station was abandoned, the last timetable for passenger service, in 1971, does not show that stop.)
After the Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, Arlo and a friend cleared a lot of garbage out of the church and tried to take it to the Stockbridge town dump—but it was closed for Thanksgiving. The dump is now
I haven't been able to get to the place where the garbage was dumped, and I don't even know the exact location; the best clue I have is here. An examination of the contour lines on a 1959 topographic map of the area suggests that most likely location for a cliff would have been the south side of Old Meeting House Road. Apparently, there's now a house on that spot. A current topographic map does show houses south of that road. Maybe the Garbage Trail Walk goes there.
Well, Office Obie took them to the police officers' station in Stockbridge:
The trial, the case of American blind justice, was in a courtroom in Lee.
Our story, of course, ends at 39 Whitehall Street, New York.
Aurora Borealis!
11 October 2024
I don't know how many years I've been wanting to see an aurora, but it's many—I I have distinct memories of a school project that discussed the 11 year solar cycle when I was about 10 or 11. Last night, at well oer 70 years old, I finally saw one, in western Massachusetts.
What I saw wasn't great—the first two pictures here, taken just after full dark, were what I could see with my naked eye. After that, it clouded over. I stayed up far too late, though, and around 1am, though I couldn't see very much, just a few hints here and there, a camera can see a lot more, especially with long exposures.
Advice I saw online beforehand suggested f/2.8, 3 second exposures, ISO 1600. That works well for visible auroras. Later, I had to resort to longer exposures and much higher ISOs (and I had to use a camera with a small sensor), which cause grainy images. Fortunately, the "Denoise" function in Adobe Lightroom works very well.
I did lighten a few of these pictures in post-processing, especially some of the later ones with 3.2 second exposures. I did not enhance or tune the color.
I got much too little sleep last night, but oh was it worth it!
Peregrine Falcon Chicks!
7 June 2024
I've been wondering since December if there was a peregrine falcon nest in Riverside Church, in the traditional location. Today, I got my confirmation: I saw three juveniles who have not yet fledged. Other reports say that one nestling has already fledged. Possibly, it's two—there were apparently five chicks, and I only saw three today.
Peregrine falcon (adult; chick)
Peregrine falcon (chick)
Raven and Raptors
20 May 2024
I didn't see any activity in the raven nest today, though there was one raven vocalizing loudly very close to it. (I thought I heard two but only briefly, and I only saw one.)
The more interesting sighting was of a peregrine falcon on one of the usual perches on Riverside Church. That's been a traditional nesting area for falcons for a very long time. Last year, though, it was covered by scaffolding, blocking access to the nest. Last December, I saw two falcons around the area, so I was optimistic, but I never saw any signs of nesting after that. In fact, the last time I saw any peregrines there was in mid-February. Thus, when I saw one adult today, I figured it was just perching there while hunting. But now I wonder.
Looking back at my pictures from today, there's a curious thing. The first picture shows the falcon looking down, as if it's trying to spot some prey. Fair enough—that's consistent with it using a nice, convenient high perch. The last two show that the bird has moved to a ledge of the church where it can see both north and west. But look at the second falcon picture: it's on top of the gargoyle, looking into the recess. In fact, it kept more or less that pose for more than five minutes. What was it looking at? Chicks? Maybe! Three years ago, I got some nice shots of nestlings who were almost but not quite ready to fledge, and that was in mid-June. Maybe there is a nest this year, and I was just unlucky all of the times I checked it between mid-February and today. I'll certainly be checking back!
Common raven
Peregrine falcon
Central Park
19 May 2024
Grey catbird
Northern cardinal (female)
Scarlet tanager (male)
Red-bellied woodpecker
Red-winged blackbird (male)
Great egret
Double-crested cormorant
Reflecting on things I cannot see…
Corvid, Not Covid!
17 May 2024
I spent a while this afternoon with my camera on a tripod, pointed at the common raven's nest on the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I had thought there were two chicks but I only saw one today. Perhaps the other has fledged or perhaps it has met with some mishap. (Pictures taken the same day as mine show two chicks even more clearly than my pictures do.)
Of particular interest is this video, showing the chick engaging in what looked like eating motions. Food dropped by a parent in the third picture? Leftovers? I can't tell.
Common raven
Central Park
11 May 2024
Today was a lovely day for birding. The prize shots, of course, are the male and female scarlet tanagers.
Scarlet tanager (female)
scarlet tanager (male)
Northern parula
Rose-breasted grosbeak (female)
Grey catbird
Double-crested cormorant
Red-winged blackbird (male)
Downy woodpecker
Sunspots!
8 May 2024
Per https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=07&month=05&year=2024, there is now a giant sunspot, visible to the naked eye if you have left-over eclipse glasses handy. Well, I don't, but I do have the solar filter for my camera.
Richard DeKorte Park, Lyndhurst, NJ; State Line Lookout, Palisades Parkway
1 May 2024
It went to two places today. First, I went to Richard DeKorte Park. It's a former landfill, but with a lot of wetlands and shallow water, which makes it great for birds.
Red-winged blackbird
Tree swallow
This picture is interesting because it shows courtship behavior among a pair of tree swallows.
Tree swallow
The gull has snagged a crab!
Herring gull
Great egret
Song sparrow
I couldn't tell if this was a lesser yellowlegs or a greater. I suspect the latter.
Yellowlegs
Brown-headed cowbird
State Line Lookout
The osprey and the vultures were at State Line Lookout. In one sense, it's a highway rest area. But there are a number of hiking trails and some excellent viewing areas overlooking the Hudswon River. In fact, it's so popular that there is often metered parking—which sure isn't like any other highway rest area I've ever seen.The osprey appears to be eating something, presumably a fish.
Osprey
Turkey vulture
Black vulture
This decrepit building appealed to me as a photographic subject.
Central Park
22 April 2024
Red-winged blackbird
Yellow-rumped warbler
Double-crested cormorant
Two of three raccoons that were by the stream in the Loch.
Raccoon
Hermit thrush
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Osprey
Northern flicker
