I ran into a few beds this year, where the deer had deliberately pawed through the snow down to the bare dirt. Not necessarily clearing out the whole bed, but obviously pawing some of the snow and leaves awaybefore laying down in it. I'd never really noticed this before.

One in particular was a big bed in a fairlydense grapevine/greenbriar thicket, and he (presuming that it was a buck) was flinging dirt and debris for a solid 5-10 feet - just throwing it out behind him. Very similar to a buck cleaning a scrape. From the tracks, it was evident that he only spent a few seconds clearing it out, b/c there weren't too many tracks where he was standing to clear it.

He then laid down right in the middle of the dirt spot and stayed there long enough to melt through most of the remaining snow pack that he didn't paw out, until I came around the ridge and bumped him out.