checkerfred wrote:
So do you guys think they will only bed and travel like this when the water is low or will they still bed and travel when it has more water in it?
Your question made me think about a buck bed I found recently:
Right on the edge of a large reservoir, I found an excellent single buck bed. This bed is in a small thicket where a small stream flows off of the hillside into the lake.
Every fall and winter, the water level of the reservoir is lowered by a couple feet, which exposes a narrow land bridge that cuts through this shallow part of the lake and connects to another portion of the mainland woods. When I found this bed this winter, the water level was low and the bed on the water was being actively used.
But, up the hill about 50 yards from this single buck bed on the water was another single buck bed that was recessed into the ground from years of use. This bed was inactive at the time I visited it. This higher bed could certainly function as a satellite bed to the bed on the water, but I suspect that each bed is used when the lake water level is at different levels. When water is high and there is no back door escape route to the bed on the lake shore, this low bed is not used and instead, the higher bed is the preferred bed. At times of low water, the higher bed could also just be a satellite bed.
So I think it's all about how deep the water is around the beds you're talking about is and how comfortable the deer are crossing it.