With Reelfoot As Backdrop, Birds and Business Combine — Lake Visit Leads to Life-Changing Move

By VAN HARRIS

Bird watching has been referred to as a superstition, a tradition, an art, a science, a pleasure, a hobby or a bore.

For a very few people, it has been a life-changing experience.

This is what happened to Nancy Moore of Reelfoot Lake. She was in her mid-40s before she began to notice birds.

“I saw a killdeer and wondered what kind of bird it was. I got a book and looked it up, and before long, I was hooked,” she said.

In 1995, Nancy was working as a nurse in the Nashville area when she saw an article in the local newspaper about an eagle-watching tour of Reelfoot. She and a friend took the tour, and she “fell in love with Reelfoot.”

She and the friend had long contemplated starting a business, and found a bed and breakfast for sale there. They bought the lakefront property and opened “Backyard Birds B&B.” Health problems later caused her friend to sell out.

“We changed the name to Blue Basin Cove B&B at the suggestion of a consultant. The macho fishermen were a little embarrassed to admit to staying at a place called “Backyard Birds,” she said.

In addition to its superb fishing and hunting, Reelfoot is Tennessee’s top destination for bird watching. More than 285 species have been recorded there, the most in the state. Nancy’s personal life list is a little short of 400 species, with more than 300 seen in Tennessee, which puts her in the top 20 among the state’s birders.

Nancy’s most exciting find was a white-tailed kite, a West Coast species never before seen in Tennessee.

“It was very frustrating. There are very few other bird watchers in northwest Tennessee, and almost all of them were out of town. So there was no one to share it with,” she said.

On another occasion, a brown pelican, normally never found far from salt water, showed up at the Reelfoot Lake visitors center.

“All of my bird watching friends rushed to see it,” she said. ” It was such a feeling of shared excitement.”

Not all of Nancy’s birding adventures at Reelfoot have been so pleasant. There are about eight osprey nests on the lake and she wanted to photograph one with chicks.

“I left late in the day in my pontoon boat. I had gotten some good photos and headed back when I noticed some fishing nets in my path. I tried to avoid them but got my propeller hopelessly entangled. I had no radio and cell phones don’t work on the lake. I and my dog spent a pretty cold night on the water before being rescued in the morning,” she said.

Her love for Reelfoot has made her an activist for its conservation.

“The lake is dying from siltation and the inability to manage water levels,” she said. “Shrubby plants like water willow are choking the life out of it. A new spillway is desperately needed to deepen the lake to kill them.”

Her favorite B&B job is taking other birders out on the lake.

“I love exploring and to be outside. I am very lucky to live in a beautiful place and to be able to make a living doing something I love,” she said.

Van Harris is past president of the Memphis chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. E-mail him: shelbyforester1223@earthlink.net.

Originally published by VAN HARRIS .

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