Arecibo ISR observations and VHF coherent backscatter data collected with a radar situated in southern Puerto Rico are examined to understand the causes of quasi-periodic variations in VHF returns from lower E-region heights (~93 km). It is found that Bragg scale density irregularities causing the observed VHF backscatter are formed and propagated horizontally in a density perturbation field localized at the upper boundary of a tidal ion layer. The density perturbation has a 7 km horizontal wavelength, propagates in southwest direction, and it is not aligned with the geomagnetic field. Thus the production mechanism of the observed density perturbation cannot be the gradient-drift instability often invoked to account for the generation of mid-latitude sporadic E radar echoes. Nevertheless, secondary gradient-drift instability operating on the gradients of the southwest propagating perturbation remains the most likely cause of Bragg scale electron density waves responsible for the VHF returns.