Agreed on the ID, curious how few leaves it's got; I've never seen one like that before.

300 ????? yikes ... evergreen or not.. no plant holds interior leaves forever .. interior browning.. yellowing.. leaf loss is normal .. especially after the canopy grows enough to start shading the leaves inside ... increased by drought the year prior ... bad winter.. transplanting .... etc ... but without a picture.. its hard to give you more than general information ... life is all in the buds.. how do those look???? if viable.. soon enough they will bud out.. and hide the sparse middle ... ken

It sounds like there is a location somewhere above that spot that some animal likes to sit, whether a tree limb or possibly the roof line, and it just happens to be above your deck. They are not aiming the droppings at any particular spot. There are places on the internet that can help you identify animal droppings, for example, this page on opossums. You could trim the tree branch where the animal sits. Here is a link that might be useful: opossum droppings

Oh I do feel for you. I was in the same boat. Suffered with it for decades. I'm 51 and went to the allergist almost 3 years ago. I have sneezed as soon as I wake up in the morning for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid. The older I got the worse it got. I was EATING nasal decongestant pills, and using the OTC nasal sprays like crazy. They made my blood pressure go up. Went to the allergist finally. Got all the tests on both arms and my shoulders, I swear it wasn't bad. I'm allergic to almost everything that grows outside, dogs, cats, dust mites, pollen, yada, yada. I started getting allergy shots. 3 shots twice a week. I have 3 different bottles of serum they use. They started combining 2 of them so I would only get one shot in each arm at ea. appt. I'm finally down to going once a month. I take Allegra and use Rhinocort and Azelastine nasal sprays. This combination works for me. I go MONTHS without sneezing now. It's truly amazing. I also use a nasal salt water rinse, truly a miracle that salt water! She told me to close the windows, get rid of the carpet get rid of the dog. I did 2 out of 3, can't get rid of my old man of a dog, he's 15 1/2 now, he'll be gone soon enough. Make sure when you use the sinus rinse you use the packets of salt for it and also use distilled water, and heat it up some, but not so much it burns. Oh, and when the sinus headaches get bad, heat up a gel mask in the microwave and put it on your forehead and just under your eyes. If you don't have a mask, get a washcloth wet then heat it in the microwave. Good luck, hope you feel better. Here is a link that might be useful: what I use