Turned out pretty cool using a colander.
You got a good picture of the crescent shadows! We saw them here as we got close to totality. Like with you, radu, they showed up on the shadows of the leaves on the trees.
The birds swarmed and flew quite haphazardly a couple of minutes before totality and went into the trees like they do at dusk. The sun had been dancing in and out of thin clouds all day, but we had no problem watching the moon’s projection through our eclipse glasses.
But right when totality hit, the clouds parted like a curtain. It was like God’s hands was parting them. It was such a beautiful and amazing sight and I now understand why people travel long distances to see a total eclipse. It was breathtaking and evoked an emotional reaction none of us expected.