Had a picture of a doe using only the licking branch of a scrape. The pic shows her licking at the branch from the other side that the scrape is on. The pic was from 5 hours before I got there and the scrape was covered in leaves from the wind from the night before. She never hoofed up the scrape to clear the leaves at all. Weird or not?
The licking branch is actually the most important part of a scrape. It's the main way they communicate... Rub their glands on the branch to let other deer know they were there.