Long-time 'mother of bird rescue' dies

Pam Howlett lived long enough to see her dream of a purpose-built bird rescue hospital come true. Photo / File Picture

OBITUARY

Pam Howlett, affectionately known as "the mother of bird rescue", has died aged 74.

She was one of the founding members of Auckland Bird Rescue, and manned the phones at the Panmure centre for many years.

Her home overlooking the Panmure Basin allowed her to keep a close eye on the Tamaki River and its estuary and birdlife.

She spent more than 30 years rescuing and reviving sick and injured birds, in particular shags. Pollution and oil contamination were the greatest problems.

The numbers of birds requiring treatment is large, and volunteers like Mrs Howlett are the only means of hope.

She will be missed by her fellow bird helpers, says Lyn Macdonald, a volunteer based in West Auckland.

"Her dream was to have a purpose-built bird rescue hospital. It's great that she lived long enough to see at least the start of that dream."

Bird Rescue has been gifted a house in Green Bay, and still more volunteers are helping rebuild it as a bird hospital.

Mrs Howlett welcomed visitors to her home. She talked to them about environmental issues, the difficulties of cleaning oil and pollutants from affected sea birds, and the problems involved with bird rescue.

But not all the birds in Mrs Howlett's care were victims of oil damage. Some had been hit by cars, snagged by fishing lines and nets, or, in the case of baby birds, had fallen out of their nests.

A cause of celebration for Mrs Howlett and her colleagues was the ban on set netting in the Tamaki River and Panmure Basin, in 1993.

Not all outcomes were so happy. When Mrs Howlett heard gunshots on the river in 1994, she raced to the water's edge to find two dead pied cormorants and two young men escaping in a boat.

The shooting was senseless, she said in an interview. "Tourists come to look at them, ornithologists come to study them, painters come to paint them, and these idiots come and shoot them."

One of the men responsible was later charged with firearms offences.

Mrs Howlett, whose husband Brian predeceased her, is survived by her brother John Stephenson and his family.