How Is It Possible That This Bird’s Nest Is So Fuzzy And Perfect?

Seriously, have you ever seen such a perfectly round bird's nest?

Me neither, but let's back this story up just a smidge. My wife and I were out walking our dog yesterday in the woods out back, and as we were going down the trail, she mentioned a spot coming up where she'd seen a ton of deer poop. Our dog can't seem to keep his face out of it, so we keep an eye out for it at all times.

As we came upon the spot in question, she mentioned it again. the first thing I noticed, was that it looked like some kind of public deer bathroom. there was scat everywhere. I thought this was odd, because deer don't exactly spray an area with pellets. So then I thought they were possibly mini pine cones, because it was under a spruce tree.

Check it out...

Then I was immediately distracted by the weirdest bird's nest I'd ever seen.

I happened to look up, and I saw the strangest bird's nest. It was almost perfectly round, and kinda fuzzy. Firs thing I thought was a bird collected all the dog hair from my yard from brushing my dog out. Seemed strange, but it was literally the only way I could explain it. Here's a photo of it:

Then I just kind of froze, and told my wife to get the dog our of there immediately.

As I looked up at the branch again, then looked down at all the scat... it hit me. This was no bird's nest at all. This was a giant porcupine up in a tree, resting. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say this little beast easily weighed 20 pounds. I even got my neighbor to check it out too, and he saw it on the ground. It was the biggest he'd ever seen.

Here's a close-up shot of it:

My neighbor's dog had just been spiked by a porcupine just a few weeks before, and judging by it's location, and their territorial habits, it's pretty darned likely this is the one that got his dog. So that's why my wife and I beat feet out of there. I seriously doubt it would've climbed down and come after us, but who'd want to find out?

It definitely felt like our own personal nature show yesterday. What started out as deer poop turned into something just a bit scarier. Quills in the snout is a top fear for my pup. But at least we know where this one lives and can give it a nice wide berth. I'm chalking this up as a small victory, haha. Take them where you can get them, right?