Anybody know what these holes could be from?

[FunkyMonkee]

They started appearing in my back yard a few years ago. I rarely ever go out back and nobody ever comes to see me. The only visitors I get are birds, bunnies, chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons and deer. Mostly just birds and bunnies.
The holes are only about as big around as a quarter (1 to 2 inches across) and about half as deep. The pics were taken from no more than a foot above the ground, if that.
They look like they were made with a perfectly formed conical tip with a rounded tip and punched into the ground. So far, they've only ever shown up around the patio just outside the back door under the dining room where the dirt is nearly always dry.
If it's an animal, the only thing I can figure is it's a male deer poking its antlers into the dirt but it'd have to bend over WAY FORWARD to be able to do that and, as you can see, they aren't "scratched" into the dirt, they are all perfectly poked into the dirt from directly above! Like, they were made on purpose. Would a deer be able to make a perfectly poked mark into the dirt? I wouldn't count on it!! He'd HAVE to be a VERY smart deer!!
Most of them are around the electric lawnmower in the back yard, which has been there for nearly 5 years, unused. Yesterday, I spotted a new hole between two concrete slabs of the patio.
I've tried not to disturb them until I can show someone or get pictures. I finally got pics yesterday but some of the others have been weathered away since they first showed up. There used to be about a dozen of them of various sizes and depths.
In the first picture, you can see an older one that's still very obvious but slightly weathered away with another one just to the right of the upper left corner.
The 2nd pic shows another one about a foot away from that.
The 3rd shows a brand new one that's between the patio stones. The stones are about 1.5" apart.

Updates

23 h

There used to be quite a few more but, as I said, they got weathered away or animals disturbed them so much, they don't exist anymore.

[purplepoppy]

If they were stamped the twigs would be pushed in, but the inside is clean with fine particles. The hole has been raked out by a small animal circling it while digging.

Or perhaps its not digging down, it's something coming out of the ground.

[FunkyMonkee]

There would be scratch marks if it were an animal, as well as other marks around them. If they were stamped in, the twigs would've just been pushed aside by whatever is making the marks.
There's no actual holes in the ground. They're only about an inch deep and, as I said, the look conical in shape like a pointy metal rod was pushed into the ground. Theere's no signs at all of digging.

[purplepoppy]

Fine soil runs between the claws and fills in scratch marks, it also explains the conical shape. I wonder if something is starting to dig but changing it's mind. It would be interesting to put a camera near by at night

[Cidknee]

Those look small so maybe they are those insects that roll doodoo into balls.

[FunkyMonkee]

I know which ones you're talking about but, these are too perfectly formed. It's like someone stamped them into the ground with a pointy metal rod.

[Cidknee]

Humm...

[Iron_Man]

You have gopher

[FunkyMonkee]

Not that I know of. What part of a gopher makes indentations like that? Aren't they about the size of a raccoon? A raccoon could barely stick its nose into any of those.

[Cidknee]

Chipmunk

[FunkyMonkee]

@Cidknee There's actually a chipmunk hole on the other side of the back yard and it's at least as big and the cardboard tube in a roll of paper towels and actually goes deep into the ground. These holes are maybe half that size and smaller. I walked right next to a chipmunk hole one day a couple weeks ago and the chipmunk was half in the hole right beside my foot. As soon as it saw me, it folded in half and went right back into the hole.

[Cidknee]

Heh, yeah, when I was working in New York 16 years ago I saw many doing their thing with the holes. That's how I know about them. I may have drumiven past your house. Billy got us lost somewhere near Harrisburg.