I'll go ahead and report a fairly astonishing (to me at least!) occurrence that came with the eclipse as witnessed on the shores of Lake Ontario (Southwick Beach State Park), where the clouds graciously opened just in time and just in time to show the sun at totality at 3:21 p.m. Some seconds past totality - around 45 - 60 seconds or so (though I have to admit being a bit fuzzy on that timing), came a roar, and I do mean roar, of sea gulls as they up and flew above us, coming from the SW. It was pretty amazing.
From: <bounce-128135987-62666557...> <bounce-128135987-62666557...> On Behalf Of sarah fern
Sent: Tuesday, April 9, 2024 3:22 PM
To: Geo Kloppel <geokloppel...>
Cc: CAYUGABIRDS-L <CAYUGABIRDS-L...>
Subject: Re: [cayugabirds-l] Birds/eclipse
Early in the darkening before the eclipse proper, I saw a changing of roosting duties by the Mourning Dove pair nesting in a hanging flower pot on my back porch. I'm pretty sure it was mom who demanded the reluctant dad to leave his nap so she could take over. She regurgitated some food for the chicks and then settled down for her nap. Unfortunately I didn't see if they changed again when the world became brighter again.
> Ithaca, New York (where the skies are very rarely clear during celestial events.)
The evening _before_ the eclipse the skies were quite clear. I went up to the top of my hill in West Danby with a couple of my neighbors, and we enjoyed viewing Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks through binoculars and spotting scope for the better part of an hour.
Of course the day of the eclipse was cloudy. My daughter in Ithaca got a nice photo of the partly eclipsed sun through a brief hole in the cloud cover. No such luck in West Danby. At the darkest point, my feeder birds briefly disappeared. But the Raven female across the road began begging very loudly and insistently. I saw her partner head off toward the valley in the gloom, presumably to find something for her. My chickens did not bother going to roost.
-Geo
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