NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day dated September 3, 2026, shows a stork perched in its nest during the partial phase of a total solar eclipse that recently occurred in Poland. According to the description, crickets and frogs make nighttime sounds during the eclipse, fireflies can be seen, and most birds fall silent; ducks and other waterfowl prepare to sleep. When sunlight returns, songbirds begin singing again with dawn melodies, while the crickets and frogs grow quiet. APOD’s main NASA website is moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod. The image is credited to Włodzimierz Bubak; the editors are Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell and Keighley Rockcliffe.
Why it matters
The photograph shows that solar eclipses are not merely events observed in the sky, and that the brief change in light is also reflected in the daily rhythms of different animals. The fact that species respond differently to the same conditions—by falling silent, preparing to sleep or making nighttime sounds—reveals that the eclipse creates a temporary nighttime effect in the environment. This framework turns the image from a purely aesthetic astronomical record into a document in which animal behavior can be observed. However, the description does not provide information on the extent to which these observations in Poland are repeated during other eclipses or in different species. The change in the APOD address also means that readers who follow this daily content will need to use NASA’s new page from now on.
Background
September is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 4 reports mentioning this name in the past 90 days; the most recent is dated September 4, 2026.