Birds

 

1997: Bird Conservation

Room with a view for a White-tailed tropic bird, Bermuda is the farthest north it nests where the islanders call it - longtail

1959: Defintive

Travel way down to the bottom of the planet to meet the Brown Skua in Antarctica, the top avian predator;  watch out baby penguin

2003, 2004 and 2002: Birds of Portugal

Lets have a splash of colour. Here is the Western sub-alpine warbler, European bee-eater and a golden oriel. Love a brightly coloured bird

1969: Airmail - Taiga Bean Geese

but to make the heart lift then a skein of geese flying across the sky takes a lot of beating

1966: Protection of Birds

although at the moment am looking out for the arrival of the Swallows, reported in the south of the country so I'm on excitable high alert for these birds bringing the promise of long warm days ahead.

1977: Birds of Hortobagy National Park

Purple Heron in one of Europe's largest National Parks which offers many spectacular birding sights in the sky.  The sun sets

1960: Waterbirds

and the moon rises. The Black crowned night heron comes into its own at dusk and through the night 

1967: Birds of Prey

if lucky a barn owls cry might be heard in the still of the night.

Sunday Stamps theme this week is - Birds -  on the wing at See It On A Postcard

Under Southern Skies

2009: Stargazing - Southern Skies

The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is located in the Hydra (water snake) constellation and the best time to see it is in the Spring which starts next month (in Australia).

1990: Animals of the High Country (Design - D Higgins)

If lucky enough to be in Australia and stargazing who knows perhaps a nocturnal marsupial may glide past and if you are in a eucalyptus forest then it will be this Greater Glider.

1966-1974: Decimal Definitive (Design - Betty Temple-Watts)

The sun is up and so are the cockatoos and this one is a galah - which I think is best said in an Australian accent.

2006: Australian Wildlife (Design - Trevor Marriott)

Meanwhile on the ground, a Tasmanian Devil  and another nocturnal creature, the common wombat.

 

Sit by fresh water and the curious creature that is the platypus may be playing there.

1966: Decimal Definitive (Design - Betty Temple-Watts)

Where next to go to watch the southern skies perhaps a beach,  where the nocturnal and gregarious Australian hermit crabs may be scuttling.  As they grow they need new shells and there is strong competition for the best shells so a fight may break out at any moment. 

The sun has risen

2010: Fish of the Reef (Design - Simone Sakinofsky)

 

take a trip underwater for a blaze of colour

with tropical fish  I was quite taken with the name of one as Spotted Sweetlips.

2011: Cocos Island Boats

Take a boat to sail the Pacific islands or travel much further south - but wrap up

1990: Australia/USSR Joint Issue -  Antarctica (Design - Janet Boschen and Yuri Artsimenev)

its going to be cold. 

 

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - the Southern Hemisphere - travel to See It On A Postcard

Rocky

New Zealand celebrated its scientists conducting Antarctic Research in 1984 with a set of 4 stamps of which I have these two. I imagine the 14 million square kilometres of ice and snow provide a lot of research opportunities. New Zealand set up their first base in Antarctica (Scott Base) in 1957 on the southernmost tip of Ross Island on the Ross Ice Shelf, which continues to be occupied with other bases later established elsewhere.   The Geology Research stamp stamp shows Shapeless Mountain which portrays the  "study programmes of the Beacon supergroup rock formation of Shapeless Mountain and Mount Fleming at the head of the Wright Valley,- in the Dry Valley's region of Antarctica".  The other stamp shows the studies on Ross Island of the Seal Colonies.  That seal has probably gone to sleep under the hood.

The set was designed by the artist RM (Robert Maurice) Conly (1920-1995) who designed many stamps and coins for New Zealand.  Perhaps I should call him Wing Commander Conly for he was also the official artist for the Royal New Zealand Air Force.  He must have been the 'go to' person for this set for he had spent time in the Antarctic and returned there n 1974 as part 'Artists in Antarctica' scheme.

Travelling to the other end of the globe and the Faroe Islands these stamps show the effects of continental drift/plate tectonics. On the left, 60 million years ago and on the right, 15 million years ago. Before the stamps travelled in the post from the Faroes to England they were part of a miniature sheet issued in 2009 called "The Origin of the Faroes"  The islands have been described as "giant slices of tiered basalt".  Here are the cliffs  rising from the sea:

 The tectonics slowly moved the Faroes away from the active volcanic regions and lava flow where Iceland still lives

The islands are considered an unspoilt environment perfect for active holidays of hikes and trips.  The stamp shows Trøllanes, the northernmost point of the Island of Kalsoy and an important bird area.  The village of the same name consists of 23 people. The name Trøllanes means "Forland of Trolls" and one of the legends say that the trolls visit it on 12th night (6 January) every year.  The stamps, as can be seen, were issued as the Faroes contribution to the Europa 2012 tourist theme "Visit".

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps, today's theme - Geology or Landscape

   

On Ice

1972: Sir Ernest Shackleton 50th Death Anniversary

The last expedition of what  is termed the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration was Shackleton's 'Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition' which set sail from Buenos Aires in August 1914. It was an attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica but it turned out to be an epic test of grit and pluck.  It is appropriate that the ship that sailed them all to the Weddell Sea was called 'Endurance' and here the stamp shows it beset in the ice (which they encountered much earlier and harsher than was anticipated).   Stuck fast in  ice they were moving in  northerly direction and by the 24 February realised that they would be held in the ice over winter. As the sun set in May for dark days of mid winter they continued to drift north. Still optimistic that eventually come summer they would drift free however when August came Shackleton described what happened as,  the "worse squeeze". On 27th October they abandoned ship and set up camp on the ice flow.

Designated Ocean Camp, and shown here as photographed by the Australian photographer Frank Hurley (1885-1962), I especially like the man on the high lookout. Lancaster Maritime Museum had a temporary exhibition of Hurley's wonderful photographs from the Royal Geographical Society Picture Library a couple of years ago and they produced a few postcards for the occasion of which I show two. The next is one of the two attempts to march to land, loading supplies into the lifeboats which made them weight a ton each.

This proved a futile attempt but the lifeboat shown here, the James Caird, would prove a lifesaver. On 30th October Shackleton decided to try to make for Paulet Island which he knew had a food deposit on it, they then set up camp on a solid ice flow, they called this Patience Camp. 
 "It is beyond conception, even to us, that we are dwelling on a colossal ice raft, with but five feet of water separating us from 2,000 fathoms of ocean and drifting along under the caprices of wind and tides, to heaven knows where." Diary of Frank Hurley.  
By the summer (21st December) the food shortage became acute and in February 1916 the dogs that had survived were shot.  The ice flow began to split on 8th April forcing departure and the 28 men piled into the three lifeboats and set off for the 100 mile journey to the remote and uninhabited Elephant Island

On reaching the island the decision was made to adapt the largest boat James Caird (22½t ft)  for a 800 mile journey to try to get help from the whaling station on South Georgia.   Shackleton chose five of the toughest and and best sailors for his journey, Worsley (the Endurance captain and for this journey the navigator), Crean, McNish (the carpenter who adapted the boat), McCarthy, and Vincent.

The journey encountered gales, ice and the highest wave that Shackleton had ever seen in his time at sea. On 8th May 1916 with a miracle of navigation and seamanship the James Caird landed on the uninhabited west shore of South Georgia. Pausing to recover from the journey suffering from frostbite and ever deteriorating health on May 19th Shackleton, Worsley and Crean set out on foot for the whaling stations, a journey of 22 miles over unmapped mountains.
"The final stage of the journey had still to be attempted.... Over on Elephant Island 22 men were waiting for the relief that we alone could secure for them. Their plight was worse than ours. We must push on somehow."- Sir Ernest Shackleton, South
 Marching for 36 hours they arrived at Stomness station, unrecognisable to the station manager who had met them two years earlier. On reuniting with the men on the other side of the island Shackleton made plans to rescue those left behind on Elephant Island which grew ever more frantic as they were thwarted by ice and weather. Eventually with his fourth attempt in the tug, Yelcho (loaned by the Chilean government) on 30th August 1916  the castaways ran onto the beach, Shackleton, straining through binoculars, counted anxiously. "They are all there!" Worsley reported him crying.

The last stamp of the set shows the schooner rigged steamship Quest in in South Georgia aboard which Shackled died of a heart attack on 5 January 1922. He now lies buried in the Grytviken cemetery on South Georgia,  In 2011 after the ashes of Frank Wild (second in command and  in charge on Elephant Island), were discovered in a vault in Johannesburg they were interred by Shackleton's side with the inscription "Frank Wild 1873–1939, Shackleton's right-hand man".  The occasion was also commemorated by a South Georgia stamp set but unfortunately one I don't have.

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps  theme of - Arctic or Antarctic

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Australia Hot & Cold

Reaching the last destinations of Sunday Stamps' journey around the world I'm stopping off at the largest island and the smallest and flattest of the continents.  Here is its 1913 stamp which does not need to say Australia, the map and kangaroo says it all. I wonder how many times the kangaroo has featured on an Australian stamps since then?

Lots I would imagine. Australia has been an island for millions of years so its wildlife has evolved in a unique way  and the country's post has always featured its fascinating flora and fauna on definitive stamps.  The largest group of indigenous mammals are the marsupials which include the kangaroo

and the koala in its eucalyptus tree.  Next the laughing kookaburra beloved of film makers to create atmosphere (the New South Wales site has a link to listen to their sound here,). The next group of unique creatures is the  monotremes, the only egg-laying mammals in the world. So here comes the platypus

just about to go for a dive, they are expert swimmers.  Now I will jump in time from these stamps of 1937 to 2009 and the the "Australian Bush Babies" series of which I only have two examples but they feature

yes the long time favourite and national animal of Australia and their cutest

the Koala which came on a card with one of those evocative Australian name cancels of Toowoomba.  Now from the heat of Australia

wrap up warm its the Antarctic.  The local inhabitants shown on this stamp have evolved to thrive in cold conditions but

humans have to wrap up warm.  Here celebrating the first attainment of the Southern Magnetic Pole the trio under the union jack are Mackay, David and Mawson, the latter of who

would return to the Antarctic to explore the geology further  . Of the expedition celebrated in this stamp Douglas Mawson wrote in the introduction to his book "The Home of the Blizzard"   "One of the oft-repeated questions for which I usually had a ready answer, at the conclusion of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Expedition (1907-09) was, ``Would you like to go to the Antarctic again?'' In the first flush of the welcome home and for many months, during which the keen edge of pleasure under civilized conditions had not entirely worn away, I was inclined to reply with a somewhat emphatic negative. But, once more a man in the world of men, lulled in the easy repose of routine, and performing the ordinary duties of a workaday world, old emotions awakened. the grand sweet days returned in irresistible glamour, faraway ``voices'' called:......from the wilderness, the vast and Godlike spaces, The stark and sullen solitudes that sentinel the Pole.

Lastly I finish this journey with a visit to the Crozet Islands, a sub-antarctic archipelago of small islands in the Indian Ocean home to four species of penguin, the Macaroni (love that name), the King, Gentoo and  

the one featured on this 1956 French Southern and Antarctic Territories stamp, the Rockhopper. 


An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps