Amazing indeed.
They’re so incredibly difficult to see, being nocturnal. Usually you inadvertently flush one (as I did today) from its roost and it flies off, never to be seen again. When this one flew I had a very good idea where it would go (a site that has held winter roosting birds in the past) so I managed to get a few shots before retreating and leaving it in peace. Very fortunate.
'tis indeed interesting. Incredible that it is able to clean / protect either eye, at will, independently.
We can do that. Not sure how many other animals & birds can & do.
You have nictitating membranes?
I’m impressed, I don’t 
I can close one eyelid and then the other cleaning the lenses individually!
Yebbut they’re not really eyelids on the owl, just secondary membranes that they can still see through whilst also cleaning their lens(es)
Our eyelids still let some light through even when closed. It’s a membrane of sorts and when we close them we nictate.
The technical term for what you do when your eyelids close is nictate, or alternately, nictitate. Whether you’re blinking in the sunshine or winking at your friend after giving the substitute math teacher a hard time, you nictate.
However, I see, digging into it that it’s a third eyelid that moves across horizontally that various other creatures have that we definitely don’t (apart from David Icke’s lizard royalty perhaps). 
Thanks for Devonsplaining it 
Edit: just saw your edit, so maybe David Icke is a bird…
Found a very interesting bird today, a Redpoll, no question about that. However, this one looked to me (on first impressions, which often count for a lot) like a Hornemann’s Arctic Redpoll.
Redpolls are such a tricky complex to assign to any particular species/race* that my brief views and less than ideal pics only led me to be 90% confident that it was Hornemann’s (or Hoary, as they’re called in N. America) but 90% isn’t good enough so I’m hoping to relocate it tomorrow and obtain better views/pics 
*Redpolls of all species/races have been “lumped” into a single species by the powers that be, so every one is now simply “a Redpoll” despite much controversy over the subject, which will undoubtedly continue ad infinitum.
To Paul’s point - I shot this LEO (at some ridiculous high ISO) in the car park at Elmley NNR - it has basically lived in the bushes around the car park for years and yet is hardly ever seen, despite the number of birdwatchers there most days.
Best of luck
Some incredible birding this week! The Long Eared Owl shots are fantastic!!!
There were some firsts (for me) last weekend at the local nature reserve:
A Bittern, which was well camouflaged and elusive; pls excuse the photos!
A pair of what I think were Gadwalls?
Things I’d seen before but am steadily getting better pictures of include:
An Egret, which was jostling for position with a Grey Heron
A slightly less terrible shot of a Cormorant than the last one I posted here
My first half-decent shot of a Buzzard
And inevitably, a Robin
Yes, Gadwall. A scarce bird here!
Don’t apologise for the Bittern pics, they’re very good considering how secretive they are.
Those are lovely. The bittern shots are fabulous.
No pics but very happy to see a Kingfisher in flight on the River Frome on today’s dog walk.
No exotica at the Nature Reserve today, but made some new birding acquaintances at the Hide, and learnt a lot!
