Some thoughts on local Short Eared owls in 2015

[A McLee]

So far we have had 1-2 unseasonal birds in the estuary; a roadkill near Kirklevington and now a photograph on 7 August of a bird sitting on a parked car in an estate near the confluence of the Leven and the Tees, Yarm. The bird was in immaculate plumage ( no signs of captivity - jesses or closed rings). Perfectly relaxed when photographed.
So what is going on? Local breeding? It is a scarce breeding moorland bird in the NE and to have 2 birds in the Yarm/ Kirklevington area in a short period of time? There has been an influx off the North Sea this year but was it a large number recorded? Perhaps failure of European rodent populations?
Ideas anyone?