The boss of a New Plymouth vet clinic is being hailed as a conservation hero for being the go-to-guy for nursing injured native birds back to health.
Rob Mills has been recognised for his service to conservation. Photo: Supplied / Rob Mills
DOC's Taranaki staff have awarded Rob Mills the gong as part of Conservation Week for his decades' of service to avian misadventure.
Mills was a reluctant hero - preferring to shift praise elsewhere.
"Oh okay hero's a bit of an overstatement, but yeah look many years, 15 to 20 years ago, it was actually my wife, Dawn, who started it all off.
"She has a very keen interest in all things avian and went and did some post-graduate studies and as part of that it increased our interest in the wild birds."
Mills is the clinical director at the New Plymouth Vet Group.
His practice treats the birds pro bono.
He said once word got out people started to bring more and more injured birds into the clinic.
"From time to time people would ... not knowing where to bring them ... bring them in, so it all started from there and then we started to actively record, you know, what we were seeing and a big interest grew from that and at times it certainly seems to snowball."
The clinic has now treated more than 1200 injured native birds and has developed a relationship with Wildbase Hospital at Massey University
Mills said the most commonly injured birds were kererū which had flown into windows.
"Usually we'll anesthetise them, give them fluids, pain relief, take some x-rays and if everything is looking like it's going to have a good long-term outcome Averil, one of our nurses here, she coordinates with the Wildbase and Aramex, the couriers, and we can get them down there and into care."
Vet nurse Averil Osborne said it was rewarding work.
"It's really cool. I mean it's a different side obviously to your companion animals and things like that, so it is a different type of nursing as well. And it's quite rewarding and I suppose the most rewarding thing is releasing and I got to be part of a release just recently and it was just awesome."
DOC Taranaki senior biodiversity ranger Cameron Hunt said the impact of Mills' work could not be underestimated.
"Especially with our little blue penguins, the kororā, they do get knocked around a fair bit and just this amazing service, you know voluntary service that New Plymouth Vet Group provides where we just turn up with a box with an injured bird in it... It's taken in by the staff and the conservation outcomes are just amazing as a result."
Hunt said Mills was someone who genuinely cared for the wellbeing of all animals not just pets.
Meanwhile, the vet said after treating more 1200 native birds -- not all of them successfully -- some still stood out in the memory.
One being a tūī that came in with a fractured wing -- prior to the arrangement with Wildbase.
"And we were able to repair it using hypodermic needles as pins to hold the bones together. It came pretty good and ended up in Ōtorohanga in the wild life area there. It wasn't quite up to being fully released and by the time we had hospitalised it it was pretty tame as well."
Conservation Week ends on Sunday.