Small Animals

 

2015: Flora and Fauna of Alderney (Design - Petula Stone)

Hello Mr Mole, look at those cute feet. May be tunneling under a lawn near you.

Another cutie - a Blonde Hedgehog. Hedgehogs were brought to Alderney as pets which subsequently were released or escaped into the wild. Their genetic diversity is low and an inherited rare genetic trait means their spines are blonde.  60% of the 400-600 hedgehogs on Alderney are like this. Unlike an albino hedgehog (a different gene) they have dark eyes.

2018: Introduced Species (Illustrations - Tanya Lock)

The beaver became extinct in Britain in the 16th Century but since 1999 they have been reintroduced as a keystone species to create wetlands and increase biodiversity with the added benefit of reducing water flow. Two were introduced not too far away from me last year as a scientific trial. They arrived from Scotland, one of them (Glen) had been rescued from a outflow of a hydroelectric plant  after becoming trapped. Another lover of wetland on the other stamp is the Pool Frog, which was presumed extinct in 1995 and reintroduced into East Anglia from Sweden.

Endangered Fauna

Say what you see - its a Geometric tortoise. Sometimes called the 'Faberge egg' of tortoises. It is an endangered species, much of its decline is due to habitat loss.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Small Animals -at See It On A Postcard. . 

World Heritage Sites

2001: National Parks (Design - Studio Mean)

I'll start off in my home county with a view of the English Lake District which was recently awarded a UNESCO designation in 2017.  The lake is Crummock Water and a larger aerial view can be seen here.  There is nice low level walk around the lake and its companion Buttermere, perfect in summer  when one can picnic at the half way point or take a trip into the Fish Inn.  Some stamp collecting wags have called the National Park series of stamps the National Car Park set.

2020: Roman Britain (Design - Up)

Head for the wild frontier and  Hadrian's Wall, or what remains of the 84 miles of wall and forts across the country built in an attempt to keep out the Picts and Scots.  There is still lots to see.  I wonder what those Roman soldiers thought in the middle of winter up here, probably wishing they were home by the warm Mediterranean so lets grant them their wish and sail into

2015: Sea Travel (Design - Andy Tuohy)

Venice although this city came of age in the maritime era and in Roman times was just a marshy lagoon inhabited by fishermen.

1961: Tourist Publicity

Travel on to Greece and the magnificently situated Delphi We would all probably welcome someone like the Delphic Oracle to divine the future at the moment, or maybe not depending what is in store.

2008: World Heritage Sites

A satisfyingly large stamp from South Africa showing a mountain ridge in the dramatic Drakensberg Park..

 

1961: Tourist Publicity - Olympia

 

Sunday Stamps theme this week is World Heritage Sites - travel to See It On A Postcard

Large Animals

1954: SAS First Flight Cover

On 15 November 1954 the SAS airline flew the first regular 'polar shortcut' service to Los Angeles and this cover is of the Greenland-Denmark leg.  They produced a dizzying number of different cover designs and stamps for the event.  The polar bear may find the iceberg melting now but in 1954 we had never heard of global warming.

1938-1946: Definitive (Design - Harald Moltke; Engraver - J Britze

The stamp is called 'Wandering Polar Bear' and it was one of the first Greenland letter stamps, the only stamps before this were for parcel post as letter postage was free of charge within Greenland and to Denmark.

1963: Polar Bear (Design - V Bang; Engraver - Cz Slania)

   The Polar Bear is Greenland's symbol and has been on their coat of arms since 1666 but in 1819 it was changed to an upright bear as seen on the stamps.

1970: Greenland Whale (Design - J Rosing; Engraver- Cz Slania)

Head offshore and mighty whales are swimming

2000: Animal Kings (Design - A Helgestad and H Strager)

I love the water pouring off the tail of this sperm whale

1954-1961 Definitives: Wild Animals

Travelling onto land for two powerful animals - the white rhino and african elephant.

1997-2000: Endangered Fauna (3rd Series)

and the endlessly fascinating giraffe at the waterhole. 

illustration from Wild Adventures in Wild Places' by Gordon Stables (1911)

 

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Big Animals - roaming at See It On A Postcard

 

Sea Strand

2010: Australian Beaches (Design - Janet Boschen)

Hellfire Bay in Western Australia is part of the Cape Le Grand National Park and is famous for its quartz sand beaches.  Despite the name of Hellfire this is considered one of the best Aussie beaches although if it does get too hot the waters are said to be very cold.

More white sand and blue water in the Bay of Fires, Tasmania. The granite rocks are covered in lichen which gives them this orange hue. Surrounded by the rainforest is Cape Tribulation, so called because this is where Captain Cook's ship scraped the a reef and then ran aground and he wrote  "now began all our troubles".  No troubles nowadays for it is part of the Daintree National Park.  A boardwalk can take one through the mangroves.

2011: Cocos Island Boats (Design - Rachelle Flynn)

Alternatively perhaps take a boat out from a beach in the Indian Ocean from one of the Cocos Islands and you may spot dolphins or whales but travel to the other side of the Indian Ocean for

1993 Definitive - Endangered Fauna (Design - Denis Murphy)

the Cape Penguin only found on the South West corner of Africa

1997: 3rd Series Definitive - Endangered Fauna

and it can face in either direction on its rocky perch on these stamps.

1978: Arctic Fauna (Design - V Kolganov)

But this bird of land and sea is in its element in the water. Here is the Snares Penguin (named after a group of islands lying 200k south of New Zealand) catching its fishy snack.

Sea Sandwort

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Land and Sea - travel over to See it On A Postcard

Kudu

1966: Wildlife (Design - Rena Fennessy)

The distinctive patterns of a kudu appear in all their glory in this stamp, these 'pencil' stripes can vary in number from 4 to 12. The artist is Rena Fennessy who created art for most of the post independent East African countries for about 25 years. She also drew birds and animals for field guides while creating her own art work of East African wildlife and scenery.  The only other thing I could find out about her was she lived in Nairobi and was possibly British. Must be quite a thrill to be able to stick one of your own stamps on a letter.  Well you see one Kudu and then two more come along at the same time...

1964-66: Definitive (Design - Victor Whiteley)

An alert kudu in a forest of young trees showing off its spiraling horns and

1998-2000 Endangered species (3rd Series)

South Africa also chose a similar front view when they issued 'standard postage' booklets of antelope definitives.

While browsing my Ks I came across these which I thought would be rather topical this week with the talks between North and South Korea just ending.

1966: Reunification of North and South Korea

Lets hope for a more peaceful coexistence and something less bellicose.  Build and not destroy.

1965: Drawings of Kim Hong-do

The artist Kim Hong-do (1745-c1806) painted beautiful landscapes but also everyday life, the stamp features his drawing of building a house.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II prompt of the Letter K - for Kudu, Kenya and Korea - See It On A Postcard
  

Briliant Birds

A cover celebrating the 700th anniversary of Biberstein (1280-1980) a village in Switzerland which lies on the north bank of the Aar River. Perhaps one might spot a kingfisher here, if not then there are kingfisher stamps. The village's castle was built in 1280 and features on the cancel as does its coat of arms - a beaver.  This is a play on words which I believe in heraldry is called 'canting' a visual pun on the bearers name and in this case the beaver (in German 'biber) is sitting on a stone (German 'stein') and so we have Biberstein

1966: Int Congress for Conservation 'Pro Natura' Lucerne (Design: B Waltenspühl)

This post may mostly feature birds but now one beaver has appeared why not have another one

1982: Landscapes and Animals

this time living near Lake Hovd in Mongolia.  Lets now return to Europe and Bulgaria for more brightly coloured birds

1965: Songbirds

and ones known for their songs.  From left to right, Northern Bullfinch, Golden Oriel and Rock Thrush

2000-2009 Definitives (Design - Chris van Rooyen)

Of course for vivid plumage the place to be is Africa and here is the Lilac Breasted Roller, one of the many birds that appeared on South Africa's 7th Definite Series along with fish, butterflies and flowers. For some reason none of the butterfly stamps have turned up with me. 

The Woodland Kingfisher perches on the definitive stamp and may not look as brilliant in colour as the common kingfisher but once it unfurls those wings it dazzles.  

2014: Bird of the Year (Design - Vladimir Taiger)

The Common or Eurasian Kingfisher was chosen as Bird of the Year for Estonia's continuing series of stamps. Every year since 1995 the Estonian Ornithological Society has chosen the bird of the year which is linked to other events such as mapping localities and trying to get a better estimate of numbers.

Most of Estonia's kingfishers are found in the south and despite it being a small country there are over 7000 rivers and brooks and 1,500 lakes, perfect for kingfishers if it were not for the very cold winters.

Sunday Stamps II prompt of the Letter B - for Birds, Beavers, Biberstein and Bulgaria - See It On A Postcard
 

All at Sea

1982: New Buoyage System

The Varne catastrophe occurred in the English Channel in 1971 - it was the equivalent of a multiple pile up on the motorway.  The 6 mile long Varne sandbank in the Straits of Dover and ship navigators inability to interpret the warning buoys in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world was a deadly combination.  As a result of the disaster a new and uniform buoyage system was introduced into Northwestern Europe in 1977 and then the rest of Europe, Africa and Australia completed the switch by 1983. Sweden commemorated the occasion by issuing a booklet of stamps (the FDC has tried to keep the booklet shape as can be seen by the joined stamps).  The stamp designer was the illustrator, calligrapher and writer 'Bertil Kulien (1919-2012) painter of the Swedish and Greek archipelagos, they were engraved by Martin Mörck

Here is a "know your buoys" for all landlubbers like me. At the top - Lateral (side) marks in the narrow Albrektssunds Canal; bottom - Cardinal (quarter marks) with Viking Line's Sally approaching in the Furusunds passage

From the top down - Special mark for a race track ; Safe water mark and the ship 'Malmo' at Ven Island in Oresund; Isolated danger mark and pilot boat at the Skagsudde lighthouse.

I enjoy marine paintings and it is always interesting to see how various artists deal with the challenge of portraying sea swells

1980: Paintings from the South African National Gallery

and here is a master at work, the 17th Century Dutch artist Willem Van de Velde and his 'Marine with Shipping'.

1980s Ships Definitive

but sometimes just a few wavy lines will do very nicely.

1994: Tugboats (Designer - Sheila Nowers)

A calm day in 1935 for the tugboat TS McEwen to tow the Union-Castle Line's Winchester Castle in its iconic lavender-hulled colours. The South African Railway and Harbour Administration's tug  TS McEwan was named after a former General Manager of the Cape Railways but was sometimes called the Smoky Sue because of the amount of smoke put out by her coal boilers.

1982: Anniversary of Simonstown Naval Base

The underwater light as portrayed by AH (Barry) Barrett as South Africa's first submarine, the Maria van Riebeeck glides through the water.

Time to dock in a safe harbour

1961-1973: Definitive (Cape Town)

and take a trip

1983: Tourism Beaches (Plettenberg Bay)

to the beach, watch the ships go and feel the sand beneath your feet or if you yearn for vast expanses of sand then

1948: Definitive 'Arab Postman' (Design: Capt EA Stanton)

take a ride on one of the ships of the desert with the postman.

Sunday Stamps II prompt of the Letter S - for Ships, Singapore, South Africa, Sudan and Sweden - sail over to See It On A Postcard