In this blog, Birds of West Cobb visits the Lost Mountain Alpaca Ranch - Read more to find out how Alpaca fur can be beneficial to nesting birds!
Back in late Spring, Lisa and friends heard about a nearby Alpaca farm. They host several activities including yoga with the Alpacas, craft nights and more. We had no idea that there was a place like this so close to us. Okay, okay, but what does this have to do with birds?
Well, Alpacas are typically raised and bred for their fur. Lost Mountain Alpaca Ranch provides visitors with some of these ultra soft fur trimmings for crafts. Participants can sit in front of the Alpaca barn (which is a nice tidy area covered by a small roof and ventilated well with multiple fans) and your group can stuff various colors of Alpaca fur into dried woven balls made of vines or twigs. During nesting season, all sorts of birds will look for soft materials to use for nesting material.
When you are finished stuffing the fur into the hangable vine spheres, Tina (the hostess) will happily provide you with some additional “to go” fur so you can refill your sphere once birds take the initial stuffing out and use it for nesting. UPDATE 11/22/2023: We also cleaned out all of our bird houses for the Winter in mid-November, and put a bit of Alpaca fur in these bird houses in case they are to be used as roosting boxes when the temperatures drop.
Lisa’s initial visit with friends was unfortunately canceled due to rain. The owner was super easy to talk to and happy to reschedule for free. The second time the group of friends made it to the Alpaca farm, a huge storm rolled in and the visit was cut short. So June became July and then finally a full visit was possible for several of us on September 22nd.
The weather was absolutely amazing. Behind the Alpaca farm area is a large meadow with several garden beds and many species of wildflowers which attracted a ton of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. We were able to snap a few photos of these hummers on the fence while we were visiting the Alpacas.
If you’re in the Marietta Georgia area and you would LOVE to meet the Alpaca family and the gracious hosts Dave and Tina, you can check out the Lost Mountain Alpaca Ranch here: https://lostmountainalpacaranch.com/
Here are some additional photos of the property, Alpacas, and a few birds (of course) we captured while visiting the Ranch:
Also, here is a quick video of an Alpaca munching on sassafras at the Lost Mountain Alpaca Ranch!
Thanks for reading this blog post "Birds of West Cobb visits the Lost Mountain Alpaca Ranch" and checking out our photos and videos above! Have you ever seen Alpacas? What did you think? We'd love to hear your story!
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