Savaging the hickory trees

It's nesting season for tree squirrels around here and our yard is littered with gnawed-off hickory branch ends that nest building squirrels fumbled.

Here's how our front yard looked yesterday morning. Each yellow bar marks a branch end that a squirrel fancied as a nest component, but couldn't hang onto after he/she chewed it off.
And here's a close-up view of one of the branches, clipped off as neatly as if  it were done with pruning shears.
I've been collecting them and tossing them into the fire pit for a week or two now and the end is nowhere in sight.