Colourful birds of Brazil

From left to bottom :
Red-crested Cardinal (紅冠繼嘴鵐) ; Guianan Cock-of-the-rock (圭亞那動冠傘鳥)
Blue-naped Chlorophonia (藍枕綠雀) ; Blue Finch (黃嘴藍鵐)
Red-necked Tanager (紅頸唐納雀) ; Scarlet-headed Blackbird (紅頭黑鸝)
Brazil (2009)
2nd October, 2009. São Paulo (First day postmark)
12th November, 2009. Philatelic Bureau, Río de Janeiro

To commemorate Brazil participated Lubrapex 2009 at Évora of Portugal, Brazil Post issued a sheetlet on 2nd October which is the first day of exhibition. The sheet contains six beautiful bird stamps which are common to Brazil and South American countries, the bird on each stamps specially printed with UV varnishing. Border of the sheetlet bore logos Lubrapex 2009 and Birdpex 6, a stamp exhibition will be held on Belgium on 2010. Thanks to Lincoln who sent me two beautiful covers of this issue, one with special cancellation and other one postmarked normal cancellation.

Until 2009, Brazil Issued more than 100 bird stamps and mostly are different, two of recent issues have been shown here and more may be shown in future. Today is the last day of 2009, of course it is the last post of this year, in here wish all happy new year.

Touristic postmarks of Swiss

In the past here had shown some pictorial postmarks from Switzerland, but as the limited writing, here did not write any detailed description about these pretty postmarks. These postmarks called touristic postmarks. Now review them once as below.

From left to right :
City sight (城市景色), 3000 Bern
City sight (城市景色), 6204 Sempach Stadt ; Ibex (羱羊), 7530 Zernez

Touristic postmarks are long history in Swiss postal history, since 40's years of last century, many post offices where have special sight or located in tourist points were started to use pictorial postmarks to replace regular postmarks, mostly they illustrate the sight of village, mountains, bridges or local residences. However few of them illustrate natural animals and other local industry. In recent days, I received two more touristic postmarks, the first one is illustrated wetland of Brittnau, the couple of White Stork (白鸛) is bleeding their chicken in their nest. The far background is Brittnau, it is a small village in the north side of Switzerland. Second one affixed with two bird stamps Bullfinch and Great Tit, which issued on 1968 and 2007 respectively. These two birds are very common to be find in this nation. The cancellation illustrated local residence St. Wendelin, which built in 1576.

Four seasons of Switzerland (瑞士四季景色)
(L : Jura ; R : Engadin, Grischun)
Switzerland (1996)
10th November, 2009. Brittnau

L : Bullfinch (紅腹灰雀) ; R : Great Tit (大山雀)
Switzerland (1968, 2007)
20th November, 2009. Geuensee

L : White Stork (白鸛), 4805 Brittnau
R : Kapelle St. Wendeln (St. Wendeln 住宅), 6232 Geuensee

In the end of this post, also have one cover from Swiss would shown here. The cover affixed two latest definitive stamps issue and sent from Lausanne. Unfortunately it cancelled by regular postmark but it looks fine. Thank you Vural of Switzerland and David of France to send me these nice and beautiful covers. Following days may obtain more Swiss touristic postmarks for the collection.

L : Chaffinch (蒼頭燕雀) : R : Great Tit (大山雀)
Switzerland (2007)
7th November, 2009. Saint-François, Lausanne

⭕️Sea birds of South Pacific

From left to right :
10 F : Eastern Reef Heron (太平洋岩鷺) ; 20 F : Audubon's Shearwater (奥杜邦氏鹱)
26 F : Great Frigate Bird (軍艦鳥) ; 54 F : Red-tailed Tropic Bird (紅尾鸏)
Wallis and Futuna (1999)
29th October, 2009. Mata-Utu

We can found that many different irregular geometric squares in the South Pacific in the map, this is the Oceania region we are familiar with. Except the so-called well-known Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, which all of them have direct flights with Hong Kong; even many people will associate French Polynesia with the name ‘a bevy of beauties’, for other countries will be a vague impression, such as Vanuatu is an ‘immigration paradise’, celebrate the New Year twice a day in Kiribati, and Nauru is a bird-shit island country where China donates it a lot of money, other than thats it is really difficult to say what they are. Many ignorance people will rely on the one-way perception of television news to think that the powerful China has gradually become influential in this region, in recent years those people with illusion that China can challenge the regional hegemonies of the United States and Australia, but they do not know that the South Pacific is still a backyard of France owned 3 overseas collectives (collectivité d’outre-mer) with a total area of 22.884km² since the 18th century, the scale is only after the Solomon Islands, except for Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in narrow sense of Oceania.

2 of the 3 overseas collectives of France in this region are French Polynesia (Polynésie française), commonly known as Tahiti; and New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie) upgraded to a Sui generis collectivity on 2025, these are almost well-known of people; However, not all people known where is Wallis et Futuna. It is an islands located in the northeast of New Caledonia, sandwiched between Vanuatu and Fiji. In here I shortly leave the topic to explain that Vanuatu was originally called the New Hebrides Islands before independence in 1980, the archipelago was jointly administered by France and Britain since 1887. Although Wallis et Futuna are closed to the New Hebrides, it was under the administration of New Caledonia before 1961, and she first appeared on the map in about 1616. Before that,

An overprinted Wallis et Futuna stamp issued in 1930, original is one of the 1928 New Caledonian landscape issue. Mata-Utu Post Office, 1977.

there was evidence that people from the Lapita culture lived on these coral islands around the 7th century BC.

New Caledonia issued its local stamps in 1859 and did not have the formal official stamp until 1892, noted that the stamps could also be used in dependences of New Caledonia this period. The first stamps of Wallis et Futuna issued in 1920 and first real stamps issued in 1944, but anyway the stamps since 1920 still vaild for postage even after independence from New Caledonia into an overseas collective in 1961.

It is not estimated that less than 20.000 people of this French overseas collective now has only two post offices, one is Leava of Futuna, which is a large population village in the Kingdom of Sigavé; another one is located at Mata-Utu, the capital of Wallis and Futuna. Beside of these two post offices, Ono which is a southwestern village of Futuna also has postal service point until 2010’s year. Nevertheless it is not surprisingly most of the mails sent from Wallis et Futuna are datestamped at Mata-Utu Post Office, and the philatelic service centre is in the same place of this post office building.

In recent years, Wallis et Futuna issues new stamps every month, most of them are local customs and landscape themes, but the total number controlled 10 to 15 stamps per year, as there just with a population of 20.000 does not have many people who will use the postal serviceso, they do not issue definitive stamps for a long time, foreign employees or tourists in the local area are generally customers of postal service. However, after 3 times of trial, the philatelic service always takes a long time for them to process philatelic products. Mailing letters are also calculated on a monthly basis, their postal route has indicated that they will send the mailbags to New Caledonia first and then process them, which makes me calculate that they only handle about 30 to 40 registered mails every year.

French DOM collection (2) - Martinique

Front

Blue-headed Hummingbird (藍頂蜂鳥)
France (2003)
30th October, 2009. Saint Pierre, Martinique
10th November, 2009. Hongkong

It is the second mail of this series, in here I would note that the last mail has been collected few days ago so I will post them all in following two months. Martinique is an island located in Caribbean, it is a famous place for vacation in America and Europe. The north of island is mountainous and lushly forested but south is lowland area, thus many wild life species to be found in the north of island.

Blue-headed Hummingbird is endemic to Dominica and Martinique. Same as Mascarene Paradise Flycatcher, it is very common to be found in these islands although it lives in limited area. It mostly habits in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.

In front of cover affixed with three stamps, except the hummingbird stamp, two of them also related to Martinique. The left one, issued on 2009 is commemorated a Marinican francophone poet Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) who was was born in Basse-Pointe and death in Fort-de-France, he also was a member of the French Communist Party. The right one, is a panorama of Saint Pierre, the place where the mail be sent. It shown the famous sight Mount Pelée and local catholic church. Saint-Pierre was a primary city of Martinique before the volcano erupted on 1902, this accident cause 30,000 people killed and the capital moved to Fort-de-France until now.

Back

Birds of the tropics (2)

2000K : Red-collared Lorikeet (紅領吸蜜鸚鵡)
400K : Great Indian Hornbill (雙角犀鳥)
Zambia (2000)
22nd September, 2009. Ndola
23rd September, 2009. Lusaka

Continuous from the last Zambian thread, here is second cover of same series Birds of the tropics. Cockatiel (雞尾鸚鵡) and Amazonian Umbrellabird (亞馬遜傘鳥) are also appear on this cover but only for make-up rate, so this cover included four of five stamps in this single stamp set. Thank you Andrew who lives in Ndola to help me arrange and sent the covers, surprisingly these two covers are sent under correct postage, this situation seems not very common in most African countries.

Red-collared Lorikeet is a species of Australasian parrot in Psittacidae (鸚鵡科) family, wild live parrots to be found in northern Australia. It looks very similar with Rainbow Lorikeet (彩虹吸蜜鸚鵡) but the head of Red-collared Lorikeet is blueish, it is one of the largest parrot in Australasia. Nowadays, Red-collared Lorikeet is a popular pet bird in the world, it is an actively parrot needs width space and frequent changed environment to let parrot does not feel boring.

The stamp description as Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus, due to Red-collared Lorikeet Trichoglossus h. rubritorquis is a sub-species of Rainbow Lorikeet. However some biologist listed as independent species Trichoglossus rubritorquis.

Great Indian Hornbill is a largest species in Bucerotidae (犀鳥科) family, it to be found in India, Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. The bird specially features a large and width yellowish casque above its bill, the Chinese name of the bird designated as the casque looks like two horns. The live of Great Indian Hornbill above 50 years, however as the damage of inhabited area and illegal hunting, population of the hornbill is decreasing.

Although the stamps are overlapped by modern registration label, the cover also written a registration number 1149 by Ndola post office. This situation because most of postal system in African countries being computerise, small post offices are still using traditional registration label or hand-writing format registration number but central post office records the mails by computer. More examples can be found in Burkina Faso and Gabon.

Yellow-bellied Tit

Yellow-bellied Tit (黃腹山雀)
China (2004)
23rd August, 2007. Guangzhong Road, Shanghai

On 2002, Chinese People Post released two definitive stamp sets to replace old Great Wall definitive stamps, the 30th group named Protect the common homeland of mankind and the 31st group illustrated 9 different birds endemic to China or Taiwan - in its government option says it has control right of this nation. Two stamps from this bird set Chinese Monal Pheasant (綠尾虹雉) and Tibetan Bunting (藏鵐) have been shown separately before, now is the third one issued on 2004.

Yellow-bellied Tit is endemic to mid-Chinese area, farther north from Hebei to southernmost of Sichuan. Normally widely lives in 500m to 2,000m highland and migrate to flatland in winter, usually actives on the needle leaved tree and wide leaved tree.

Joint issue - Baltic birds

From left to bottom :
Western Osprey (魚鷹) ; Black-tailed Godwit (黑尾塍鷸)
Common Shelduck (翹鼻麻鴨) ; Common Merganser (川秋沙)
Estonia (1992)
17th September, 2007. Jöhvi

In 2002, four Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden were issued a set of common designed stamps features four Baltic birds, when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were newly independent from former USSR. Four stamps are printed in intaglio and issued as booklet format. Four birds are commonly to be found in these four countries, Black-tailed Godwit breeds from Iceland to most of Europe, and also areas of Central Asia. The bird migrates to Australia, western Europe and western Africa in winter. Now Black-tailed Godwit classified as near threatened. Merganser is a large-sized duck distributed over north Eurasia and North America, most commonly lives in the lacks and rivers.

For enough postage, a Northern Lapwing (鳳頭麥雞) stamp issued on 2001 also be affixed on the envelope, thanks Kristiina for this nice cover.

Biodiversity : Between north and south of the Atlas

Maxicard
Common Ostrich (駝鳥)
Morocco (1998)
29th October, 2009. Rabat Postal Museum, Rabat

The Atlas, is a range of mountains through Morocco, Algeria and western of Tunisia, it separates southern Mediterranean coastline and Sarah Desert to these three countries. In the northern part of the Atlas is Mediterranean climate and the southern part is dried desert climate, thus there has biodiversity in these countries, and Morocco is in the eastern part of this area.

Common Ostrich is a flightless bird widely to be found in grassland and desert of Africa, wild life ostriches live in Western Sarah, where is the area of grassland and Sarah Desert. Ostrich is the largest bird in the world, males can be measured more than 2,5 meter high and 155 kilogram. Although it can not fly, it advantaged in run. Now ostrich becomes a popular poultry and feed it humanly worldwide.

Nightingale is a songbird widely to be found in Europe and part of north-west of Africa, it also commonly fed by human as well as ostrich but it only for pet birds. Wild life nightingales are live in coastline of Morocco, from Atlantic to Mediterranean. Nightingale stamps also appeared on the stamps of Spain and Slovenia, which are in envelope or maxicard format respectively.

Below cover was a return envelope for above maxicard, two items totally three sets of the stamps have been used. For enough postage, a make-up rate stamp to be affixed on the envelope, which is an Iris (鳶尾花) stamp issued on 1968. However so pity that it hasn't been cancelled.

L : Nightingale (夜鶯) ; R : Common Ostrich (駝鳥)
Morocco (1998)
29th October, 2009. Rabat Postal Museum, Rabat
29th October, 2009. Rabat Central

Great Tit

Great Tit (大山雀)
Spain (2009)
12th November, 2009. Barcelona

Thanks David sent me this nice mail from Barcelona which franked with three same domestic bird stamps issued on 2009, same as recent bird issues, it comes from self-adhesive booklet. Great Tit is a common songbird to be found in most Eurasian countries and Morocco, it mostly lives in mountain and flatland.forest. In summer it residents in high mountain area but will migrate to lowland in winter. Although the bird does not list as endangered species, it faces illegal trading in China as it is famous pet bird in this country.

Beside of above cover, Switzerland and Estonia also issued a Great Tit stamp on 2007 and 2003 respectively. A maxicard was shown in here on February.