Brooklyn bird watchers are atwitter over a rare visitor that they hope will persuade city officials to rethink plans for a waste transfer station in southern Brooklyn.
A western reef heron, more common to West Africa or the Persian Gulf and only seen half a dozen times in North America, touched down in Dreier-Offerman Park last week.
Local friends to the feathered kind hoped it would serve as their spotted owl, forcing the city to take a different line on protecting the area for local fauna and exotic visitors.
Chief among the concerns are plans for a nearby marine waste transfer station - part of a citywide compromise approved by the City Council last summer but that still requires state permit approval.
Putting the trash site near the Gravesend park makes no sense, said Ida Sanoff, chairwoman of the Natural Resources Protective Association.
"If we change one brick in this structure, it's possible the whole ecosystem will crumble," she said of the stressed urban environment.
Opponents of the project said that insecticides and pesticides - required to kill off mosquitoes and rodents attracted to the trash - in turn will poison the birds that feed on both or leave them with fewer sources of food.
The city Sanitation Department did not return several calls seeking comment.
Assemblyman William Colton (D-Bensonhurst), a vocal opponent of the waste transfer station, was delighted by the arrival of the wading bird - slate gray, with yellow feet and a white throat. He said it would be a bad idea to put a transfer station near habitat for such a rare bird.
And Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society, said any place that can attract such a bird is sure to be worthy of preservation.
"I'd really like to come see it," said Butcher, who has seen 700 species of birds, but not the western reef heron.
Legally required preservation, however, is generally triggered only by birds both native to North America and on the endangered species list, he noted.
Whatever may come of the transfer station, bird watchers were excited.
It's the "best sighting" ever in the park, Brooklyn Bird Club President Peter Dorosh wrote in an e-mail.
"There's no denying it's a real thrill," said Alex Wilson, 48, of Bay Ridge, who was the first to officially identify the bird.
