stray catchers make there money 2 ways, they usualy get paid by the council for removing birds then they often sell the birds into the food chain or sell them on! Some on here have purchased birds from a certain pet shop!
could always be a stray catcher who has then sold the bird on and somebody has let it out! Watch the free adds and birdtrader etc to see birds being sold everyday let alone bird markets etc! If it has been into a fancier, then they are no fancier!
Yes, we are only flying 391 but there are fanciers flying a lot further, and the weather would have closed in there about 2-2.30! It came from that direction so North Wales would have been fine.
Being honest, they suffered the last time they changed as birds had little time before it closed in and got dark, no different today, the weather closed in before birds would have got there.