Adopted birds and changing islands

DISPATCHES, via text messages to this relatively remote Mediterranean island which I am re-visiting, assure me that the young heron which we adopted a fortnight ago is alive, robust and growing in all directions.

It guzzles down a fish or shellfish four times daily.

However, it knows when it has enough and stops clacking its beak for more. We had no alternative but to adopt it. The nest was in the canopy of a pine tree more than 100 feet above ground and there was nobody available to shin up the tree to replace it where it belonged.