Wind based bedding...

[dan]

Checked an overlooked point the other night near a hunter/hiker parking lot. The leeward ridges did have some beds, but it is pretty open.

On top of the point about 20-30 yards back from the crest I found a large circular bed within a tangle of branches of a huge fallen oak. So my questions are,
1) with the lack of cover on the ridge, would a buck bed in the good cover with decent visibility and lose the thermal advantage?
2) or maybe bed in this tangle on all winds but the mostly south wind that makes the point leeward?
3) or is it likely just a well used doe bed?

Some context: There were a few small rubs at the base of the ridge heading to a DNR planted wildlife field and there are oaks and locust trees everywhere on these ridges. So food is nearby, and according to the podcasts, when deer density is low mature bucks don't necessarily leave a lot of sign. The point is out of sight of the parking area, but is on the next ridge west and is overlooking a major highway. The area is a huge hiker destination, but I am almost sure this point gets overlooked. In the hollow between the point and parking, at the base of a long narrow field and 40 yards from the highway, there is a thick patch loaded with doe bedding. Adjacent to the doe bedding I also found a large scrape that looks to have been pounded last season.

The lack of cover would concern me "a little" unless the whole area has a lack of cover... But if he has good visibility and cover behind he will bed there with the obstacle to his back (fallen tree) and wind coming from the object direction which I assume is uphill and that he is on a leeward hill.

The winds he will use do not have to be straight leeward, they can be angled. Although possible, I doubt that he beds there with the hill being windward, he might if its not that steep and he can see out from the bed in every direction. I am also sure from your description it is indeed a buck bed. That don't mean a lone doe won't use it now and then, but its a buck type set up.

[jhpa]

Checked an overlooked point the other night near a hunter/hiker parking lot. The leeward ridges did have some beds, but it is pretty open.

On top of the point about 20-30 yards back from the crest I found a large circular bed within a tangle of branches of a huge fallen oak. So my questions are,
1) with the lack of cover on the ridge, would a buck bed in the good cover with decent visibility and lose the thermal advantage?
2) or maybe bed in this tangle on all winds but the mostly south wind that makes the point leeward?
3) or is it likely just a well used doe bed?

The lack of cover would concern me "a little" unless the whole area has a lack of cover... But if he has good visibility and cover behind he will bed there with the obstacle to his back (fallen tree) and wind coming from the object direction which I assume is uphill and that he is on a leeward hill.

The winds he will use do not have to be straight leeward, they can be angled. Although possible, I doubt that he beds there with the hill being windward, he might if its not that steep and he can see out from the bed in every direction. I am also sure from your description it is indeed a buck bed. That don't mean a lone doe won't use it now and then, but its a buck type set up.

Thanks Dan, that's what I was thinking. The area does have cover patches within a half mile or so, and some thick old clear cut ridges but they are mostly surrounded by hiking trails, yet this point along the highway gets ignored. The point is mostly flat out to a sharp crest with a pretty steady, steep slope of 150-200 yards to the base.

The bed in the oak had limited visibility and was on the flat, so there was no downhill sight. There were beds (far less worn) within 30 yards of it, with boulder or tree to back, along the military crest. It makes sense that they'd be less worn since the switch left/right and up/down according to the wind direction and speed. The ridge is north facing, and winds here are mostly westward and switch between NW and SW. I thought maybe a buck would use that oak bed for the non-north winds, even though he'd be sacrificing visibility, to keep to that overlooked point.

[Sailfish_WC]

Question:

When you decide stand site (and if I understand correctly, many times it’s a one and done deal) in the a.m.
you’re (no one in particular) basing your approach on the known wind (I assume from the weatherman or an app). And let’s say it’s a light wind <4kt and relativley flat farmland
You get to the stand and drop your milkweed etc, and find at sunlight or when u get in the tree that the wind in that tree is not acting like the weatherman predicted or what you would have expected

Do you bail? Hang in there? Try sliding down and back out and go a diff tree?

Seems like the wind thing could be a crapshoot gauging correctly, leaving potential to bugger up the spot

I can’t imagine w swamps, woodlots and low and high spots etc on the hunting grounds that the air movement is what you expected or what it should do.