You don’t see coyote beds very often. Here are two side by side.
Most folks usually associate these areas with thick cover.
I believe weather conditions and time of day/night have a lot to do with where they end up.




If you pay close attention you can tell which way they were facing.
In this case the coyotes were facing the photographer. They bedded with the wind at their back.



Right Bed



Left Bed

Anything they were watching?

Or just a good place to soak up some sun and rest?

BT I am pretty sure they were just taking a siesta after dinner.

These beds in the open are not daytime beds for the most part.
They are used mainly in the late night and early morning hours before daylight.

The daytime sun is way too intense to stay in the open.
As temps rise in the early morning hours they will seek shade and lower temps often times along the creek.

It's interesting that they bed with their back to the wind so they can smell where they can’t see and see where they can’t smell.

Wile E. has this figured out pretty good.

Here is another example.

Once again the bed is right along a main trail.

Nice post. I'm envious of your tracking conditions. Can't read sign like that around here unless you have fresh snow.

Deer bed that direction also.
Dare I say "always"?

You have sand, we get snow to "tell".

We have hills that cause thermal currents (air movement)
that can show beds not aligned as I said above.

Always?? Almost.

Guess I've not noticed what direction coyotes bed in these parts but I'd expect them to bed the same as the deer so not surprised.

I'd say that it would be abnormal for a deer here to bed in a manner that doesnt allow them some vision downwind. But I'll add a twist---in a group of multiple deer it would also be very strange for the group to consistently bed facing downwind. There are almost always some with eyes covering the approaching angles and just as often one is facing upwind to cover the back door in case the sniffer fails. Wonder if family of coyotes does similar?

Here is one last example.

Once again the bed is right next to a predominately used coyote trail.




They also seem to prefer bedding down next to a backing or cover of some sort.

In this case the coyote nestled up to a large clump of grass.

Used to run red fox with dogs. Middle of winter an opening in woods or brush, with a south facing slope were real good for jumping fox. They sun themselves in spots like that. How they bed down specifically I don't recolect. Learned a lot about fox running them with dogs. They do a lot of things that don't jive with trapping books.

Show a coyote what he expects to see and you are way ahead of the game.

Most of the time what he shows you is what works best.


Here is a primeexample left by Wile E. at an old bone yard.




You constantly see this kind of marking in these areas.
Notice the repeat visits made to this one hide.
I mimic this look only where these items are found.
I’ve used this setup for a long time. It produces well in this type of situation.



Place poop from another area on the downwind edge of the hide and add a shot of urine to the lip of the cape just behind the scat.
I do not move these scraps from their original location.
Crowd the added attractants for all they are worth with no offset.

This set will snag some of those coyotes that tend to shy away from other visuals.

Out of curiosity, what are you doing to avoid the cats?