Photobucket  I watched a huge fungus grow about 20 feet off the ground in the hemlock behind our house. It kept getting larger and larger-- about the size of a beach ball. Then one day in the spring it broke into 2 pieces, and fell out of the tree. And I could see that it was built out of the insulation from the crawl space of our house, some moss and twigs. The walls were about 6" thick with just a grapefruit sized cavity in the center. Up until this year, the squirrels have treated our house like home depot. You know, sneak in, carry off a golf-ball sized chunk of insulation, cart it off to the woods, build a nest. In the fall, I usually just put a chunk of insulation in the carport and let them have at it-I figure it saves the insulation in the house. They pull off chunks, wad them up and keep stuffing it into their cheeks until they have a tight ball as dense as cotton balls, but a little bigger. Then they carry it off, head held high so the insulation doesn't get dirty, and pretty soon they're back for more. We've had predators come through before-- a lemming stayed one winter; there was a female ermine, and a cat adopted us this year, so the squirrels, stellar jays, chickadees, winter wrens, varied thrush, and others have sort of moved off. We enjoy watching both-- the wild and the domestic. Unfortunately, one usually doesn't get to watch them both at the same time. The kitty is a joy to watch because she's such an athlete. Her coat is mostly grey with some blonde and a couple patches of white-- if she sits still under the fern, you don't see her until she moves. When she moved in, the rustling sounds from the crawl space ceased. The only thing I'm not fond of, is the piles of tiny organs in pyres on the front porch.