Interesting picture Amber. You must have different pine trees than we do because the ones around here do not turn brown and drop their needles. We have a coniferous tree that does that in a few mountain valleys to the west. We call them larch. I would tend to agree that this was probably done by a squirrel, although the branches look a little flimsy to support a squirrel Could support a chipmunk though. Do you have any of those in your part of the world?

Cheers,

WesternGuy