Photos by Philip Casper.

There seemed to be mixed reactions to Monday’s big event as those few minutes passed — depending on where you were — around 3:20 p.m. debuting this area’s total solar eclipse under gray cloud cover. 

Social media posts varied from exclamations of having witnessed the best thing ever and feeling awed by the eerie cloak of darkness that descended and lifted as if someone dimmed the light switch and ever so gently rolled it back up.

Still others heaved with palpable sighs of disappointment after all of these past weeks and months of education, promotion and preparation for what was to come due to those nasty clouds that arrived and settled in for a stay. 

After the jump, the full story plus links to all of The Batavian's eclipse coverage from Monday -- the most comprehensive coverage of any news outlet in Genesee County. If you value this depth of coverage, please join Early Access Pass today so we can continue to provide it.

During the eclipse events in Corfu, there was something sweet happening at Sweet Dream Maple Farm on Reynolds Road. Owners Al and Amy Stein had the farm open today for maple samplings, lunch, tours of the farm, and their shop was open for business.

When Al heard that the Darien Lake Hotel was going to be open for the eclipse weekend, he wanted to include their farm with all of the local happenings. 

"It's something for the visitors to do," Al said. "I opened everything as an extension of Maple Weekend." 

Nick and Tina were up here on a family trip from Danbury, Conn., with their three kids, Ben, Nicola, and Samantha. They heard of the events happening in Corfu from their Airbnb host, Amy Stein, and decided to keep their eclipse viewings local. 

Another stop was in the village of Corfu for their eclipse viewing party at Pembroke Intermediate School, which was free for all to attend. Many locals gathered for games of corn hole, miniature golf, trivia, and a cookout fundraiser for the church food pantry. 

Jim and Sara Hall of Corfu were excited to spend time with their kids today. 

"I took the day off of work," Jim Hall said. "It looks like it's going to be a dark one." 

He laughed.

"The three-day event was a great success," said Tom Sargent, the village of Corfu mayor. "It was well attended for a small community." 

He recapped that Corfu had the parade and dance on Saturday, which at one point had 45 people on the dance floor learning to square dance. The craft festival and movie night on Sunday also had great turnouts. 

"The weather definitely affected the turnout today," Sargent said. 

Even though it was a cloudy day for everyone in Genesee County, Corfu was able to catch a couple of glimpses between clouds before the total eclipse.

There was widespread agreement that it was an exciting event even though the actual total eclipse wasn't visible.

The village and school district of Elba collaborated to host an eclipse event Monday. Here are some of the visitors and participants, and activities that took place on school grounds. 

Photos submitted by Gretchen Rosales.

These photos, above of the total solar eclipse when the sun was fully shadowed by the moon and, below, after the few minutes were over and darkness evaporated into daylight again on Monday, were submitted by Red Dyson from Park Avenue in Batavia.

Other residents submitted their versions of the total solar eclipse as well.

 Animal lovers took in the eclipse Monday at Mockingbird Farm Animal Sanctuary in Byron.

Jonell and Joe Chudyk, and Jon Tedd founded the livestock rescue farm. They care for more than 40 rescue animals and birds.

The event on Monday drew visitors from New York City, New Jersey, Binghamton and Ithaca.

Ben Strothmann (aka Honey LaBronx, The Vegan Drag Queen) from Manhattan, who has performed at fundraisers for Mockingbird Farms, made the trip, saying it was "kismet" when he saw that a charity he supports was in the path of totality and was hosting a special eclipse event.

While awaiting the eclipse,  visitors could pet livestock, play lawn games, get tarot card readings, and read about eclipses.  

The event was coordinated with the Wounded Warrior Project. 

Previously: Mockingbird a sanctuary for all creatures, take a tour at festival Oct. 7

If you were in Genesee County on Monday were teed off that you didn't get to actually see the total eclipse that passed over the region, at Terry Hills, they were really teed off.

In the midst of the darkest minute, golfers hit glow-in-the-dark balls of the first tee, apparently just to say they played golf during a total eclipse of the sun.

Terry Hills Golf Course hosted an eclipse party, including a special menu with food items such as Total Eclipse Burger, Blackout Caesar Salad, and Supernova Nachoes.

Golfers also received a commemorative "I Saw the Eclipse at Terry Hills April 8th 2024" golf ball.

Danielle Rotondo said about 150 golfers hit the links on Monday, with about sixty playing during the eclipse.  The three people teeing off from the first tee during the totality were Mary Brown, Casey Brown, and Rotondo.

"It was a great day, an amazing experience playing and teeing off during totality," Rotondo said. "My aunt, Mary Brown, had the idea to use the glow golf balls, which make for an epic tee shot!  We had people come from all over New York State to experience it at our facility."

Photos and video submitted by Danielle Rotondo

The sun and moon may have hid behind clouds during the total solar eclipse that passed over Western New York -- with Batavia dead-center in the eclipse path -- on Monday afternoon, but even a glimpse of the partial eclipse from 2:41 to 2:44 p.m. thrill some visitors to the Richmond Memorial Library.

The total eclipse started at 3:19 p.m. and lasted for four minutes. It, however, was shrouded by clouds.

Even with a forecast of clouds, the dim prospects of actually seeing a fairly rare total solar eclipse were enough to draw a few visitors to Genesee County and the Genesee County Fairgrounds to see what they could see.

There were a couple of dozen groups of people at the fairgrounds on Monday to see the eclipse.

Denise Auker, of Lancaster, Pa., and her family of six picked Batavia because it seemed affordable and the five-hour drive was reasonable.

"The Genesee County Chamber of Commerce's website was very helpful and had a lot of information," Auker said. "We were at the maple farm this morning. They (the chamber) recommended that, and then they had this location on (the site). They had several locations to choose from, but we picked this one."

For Mike from Northern Virginia and his friend Aram, Genesee County seemed like it might be a place with fewer crowds, easier to get to and leave after the event.

"We also wanted to go somewhere where there were we knew there were places to see the eclipse," Mike said. "We didn't want to get stuck in the middle of a place with just roads and no cleaning, no place to park and see it. We figured this was a good place to end up."

Video by Steve Tufts