The Aspiring Biodiversity Trust project manager has now met a critically endangered bird known as BkRBk/GW three times.
First when the Twizel-bred kakī was released in Tasman as a juvenile in 2016, again with a companion GBkO/BkW in 2021 at Makarora and again last Sunday, also at Makarora with the same companion.
The second and third coincidental meet-ups in the wilds of Makarora have surprised and delighted Ms Hufton.
"Sunday was an exciting day ... to have them come to visit at Makarora for a second time is quite a miracle," she said.
Both banded birds were reared at the Department of Conservation’s captive breeding programme at Twizel.
BkRBk/GW is 8 years old and GBkO/BkW is 6.
The kakī are considered the rarest waders in the world.
The total population was about 23 when the Twizel breeding programme began in 1981.
Now the birds number about 160 and many have been released on the Tasman delta at the top of the South Island.
Records from the 1980s note kakī used to be commonly encountered throughout the South Island’s braided river habitats.
Ms Hufton said after the two birds’ Makaroa honeymoon in spring 2021, Claudia Mischler from the Twizel breeding programme told her they returned to the Tasman and bred.
The eggs were collected by staff at the kakī Recovery Centre and hatched. The chicks were reared in captivity and released as sub-adults.
She had lots of questions about why the migratory pair had come back to Makarora for a second time and whether they might stay and breed, Ms Hufton said.
"If they did breed at Makarora, this would be significant for nature conservation in the Makarora Valley," she said.
The trust would continue to monitor the Makarora braided river environment, undertake pest control and work on other threatened species projects in the Makarora and Wilkin catchment.
The main threats to kakī include introduced invasive mammalian predators, habitat loss and human disturbance.
Kakī are found within braided river habitat, associated pools and wetlands.
