Maybe getting off topic but I guess I'm not seeing the same thing regarding feeding.
In my mind a feeding area is a destination where there is a strong potential for "danger". Most deer or bear will circle and walk in with wind at face or quater wind before entering the "potential danger area". I have been seeing this trait before I was 12 years old growing up splitting time between farmland and big woods hunting.
We had permission on a farm to hunt 30 years ago that was crop fields in the middle and surround buy large tracts of timber on 3 sides. These crop fields, guessing back, were all of 200-300 acres with some fence rows and drainage ditches. If the wind was blowing from the north to south the south side woods always had good deer activity early. We tried to hunt this side but most times never took the chance to hunt it agressivily enough to put us in good bow range of deer on a daily basis. Point being this farm had little pressure 30 years ago......very few bowhunters in that day and the deer still prefered to enter the field with some kind of wind to face.
Later on the bait pile hunting started to unfold in the big woods.....I rarely hunt over bait now, still place some for inventory and may hunt 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile away. Anyways.....backtracking decent buck tracks from this bait almost always shows a bunny hook if they are headed to the bait with out a favorable wind to their face. Heck huntng in my backyard the deer most always change course before coming by one of our permenant stands....bait or not placed. The deer just know this is a potential danger zone and best try and "check it" before walking by.
Now that I am getting further off topc...
how to use this to the hunters advantage?
Hunting in evenings deer leaving beds (I have little experiance compared to you, Dan) seems deer move to where they want to move. Wind at back or face.....the wind may pick what bed a deer choices in the am. This I see alot when following tracks, the classic bunny hook is almost done at every bedding area. I see this and my findings follow yours.
How can we use this info to our advantage to intercept a buck leaving a bed heading to a staging area before going to feed? Maybe I am just missing the big picture but thought all these years of reading about bucks bedding was for wind at back and then using their eyes scanning for danger ahead. This is for the bed itself. Didn't really think the deer then left their bed with wind at back when it was time to go? I thought that didn't really matter what wind direction until they got to a "danger area"? ......where they wanted wind to face at that point.