Sporty Alpaca?

A friend told me that a great way to attract birds to your area, is to put out wool scraps for nesting material.  I didn’t have any wool, but found a wool store in my neighbourhood – as is so typical, I had walked by this store thousands of times without realizing it was there.

Having never bought wool before, I was overwhelmed by the selection but figured natural fibers would be best, settling on a ball labelled ‘Sporty Alpaca’ –  because the first image that came to mind was one of these animals running around in a rush shouting, ‘Damn, I’m late for tennis. Has anyone seen my racquet?’

So I cut the yarn into 4-8 inch lengths and put a few handfuls out in my backyard. The wool quickly disappeared, and there is a new nest in one of the trees, but other than twigs, I can’t tell what materials were used in construction.

Even so, when you try something new, you look at things differently. When I walk around my neighbourhood now, I notice the birds and their nests more, and wonder if any of the nests I see have alpaca linings.