About the cache: The cache should be an easy find. The below information is not necessary to find the cache. Getting to the cache is not wheelchair accessible. The White Elephant Trailhead & Parking area is the closest trailhead to the cache and coordinates for it have been listed as a waypoint. The cache is located along the George S. Mickelson trail bike path. The trail is closed to all users from ½ hour after sunset to ½ hour before sunrise.

There is a fee to access the trail: Daily: $4 daily (required per person ages 12 and over) or Annual: $15 (required per person ages 12 and over)

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Why Ducks? Ducks are my favorite subject. I like all kinds of ducks. Having lived in the south-east of the United States most of my life, I had not seen many species. Since moving to South Dakota, I have been spending a lot of time looking for the many species of ducks that visit or reside here. This series of caches will hopefully provide some interesting information on wild ducks.

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Northern Pintail Duck

Northern Pintails are large ducks - about 20 inches long and weigh in at about three pounds. The Northern Pintail broadly overlaps in size with the Mallard duck, but is slenderer and more elongated, with a longer neck and (in males) a longer tail. The male duck has a chocolate-brown head and white breast with a white stripe extending up the side of the neck and a blueish duckbill. The male duck also has long tail feathers - as much as 4 inches, which is 1/4 of it's body length! The female is mottled in light brown with a more uniformly grey-brown head, and its pointed tail is shorter than the male with a grey duckbill. Both the male and female have sky-blue wing and green wing feathers. 

Northern Pintails are dabbler ducks. They live in unwooded wetlands, such as wet grassland, lakesides or tundra. In winter, this duck will use a wider range of open habitats, such as sheltered estuaries, brackish marshes and coastal lagoons. 

Northern Pintails are among the first ducks to migrate south in the fall and north in the spring. They were once  one of the most abundant ducks in North America but have suffered a disturbing population decline since the 1960s.

Northern Pintails are seen in South Dakota during breeding season - which is late April to early May.

I first saw this species of duck at Canyon Lake Park in Rapid City, SD.

You may see ducks here. I love duck photos so feel free to post any duck pictures to your log. Of course, this is entirely optional.