Eclipse

I've been in a couple of solar eclipses in my life.  Both times I thought that the early phases--partial blockage of the sun--were almost imperceptible.  As the eclipse progressed, it eventually did look noticeably different--I thought then (20 years ago) and more recently (a couple of weeks ago) that it was like looking through heavily-tinted glass.  The sun was still shining, but it was dim.

These pictures capture what I thought I saw.  The darker was was just under-exposed a couple of stops by me because the camera tried to make the picture look like a normal sunny day.  The darker one is a better rendition of what I was seeing as the eclipse percentage moved higher.

Another thing I noticed this time but that I don't remember during the last eclipse (in 1994) is that the sun provided little warmth after a certain point.  Standing in the sun didn't feel hot, even though it was still relatively bright. Also, the interior of the truck, which was in the sun, wasn't hotter than the outside.

I don't have animals and didn't really notice anything different, with one exception:  Once it got very dark, a dusk-singing cicada let loose and started singing.  On a normal day, they only start singing in twilight once it is fairly dark (still during civil twilight, but not immediately after the sun sets).