⭕️Animal poaching awareness

From left to right :

Cape Parrot (海角鸚鵡) ; Grey Crowned-Crane (灰冠鶴)
Transkei
Wattled Crane (肉垂鶴) ; Grey Crowned-Crane (灰冠鶴)
South Africa (2015), Transkei (1991)
10th March, 2015. Menlyh

The Endangered Wildlife Trust has been engaged to train staff at South Africa’s international mail centres so that X-ray machine operators know how to identify animals and animal parts in parcels to foreign countries. The contents of all outgoing international mail items are checked by means of X-ray machines.

The elegant grey crowned crane graces many of Africa's wetlands. Threats to their populations include illegal capture for the pet trade and the loss or degradation of suitable wetland habitat, due to an increasing human population and demand for agricultural land and freshwater sources. These birds are listed as endangered.

The Cape parrot is South Africa’s only endemic parrot species and is found in the fragmented southern mistbelt forests. Over the past 150 years, illegal capture for the wild-caught bird trade has reduced the numbers of the global wild population to less than 1600 individuals.

⭕️Baby wildlife

Burrowing Owl (穴鴞) ; Atlantic Puffin (北極海鸚)

Canada (2014)
27th August, 2015. Witless Bay, Newfoundland

Happy New Year !

Witless Bay is a fishing community, first established because of its closeness to the rich fishing grounds on the Grand Banks. Tourism is an important part of the community as well, since the community is home to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, which contains North America´s largest Atlantic Puffin colony and the world's second-largest colony of Leach's Storm-petrels. The presence of these bird colonies has given birth to the Witless Bay Puffin and Petrel Patrol, a volunteer organization aiming to save stranded chick and return them safely to the ocean. Bed-and-breakfast establishments, coffee shops, a whale and puffin tour operator, several craftspeople, and the Witless Bay and Area Puffin and Petrel Patrol attract visitors from all over the world.

Atlantic Puffin (北極海鸚)

Canada (2014)
27th August, 2015. Witless Bay, Newfoundland

⭕️Christmas

25c : Western Meadowlark (西草地鷚) ; $5,00 : Yellow-rumped Cacique (黃腰酋長鳥)
50c : American Yellow Warbler (北美黃林鶯) ; $1,00 : American Goldfinch (美洲金翅雀)
$1,60 : Northern Mockingbird (小嘲鶇)

Nevis (1996)
28th August, 2015. Charlestown, Nevis

Nevis, like most small Caribbean islands, has a wealth of events and festivals scattered throughout the year. The two main holidays on Nevis are Christmas and Easter. On Nevis people celebrate Christmas the day before, in Charlestown, until midnight, when everyone goes home to spend Christmas day with their families, and then everyone parties again on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day). Easter celebrations stretch from Good Friday, with kite contests, until Easter Monday, with beach parties).

⭕️Penguins, Predators and Prey

Magellanic Penguin (麥哲倫企鵝) ; Falkland Skua (福克蘭賊鷗)

Falkland Islands (2015)
21st August, 2015. Stanley

Magellanic penguins are opportunistic feeders, taking roughly equal proportions of fish, squid and crustaceans. During chick-rearing, foraging trips take place on a daily basis during daylight hours. Birds generally hunt at depths of less than 50m, but may dive up to 100m. One of the more common prey species is the Falkland Sprat or Fuegian Sardine Sprattus fuegensis. This a small fish about 150mm in length which breeds in spring and early summer in the coastal shelf waters around the Falkland Islands and feeds on copepods, euphausiids, mysids, pelagic amphipods, chaetognaths, eggs and fish larvae. Large numbers appear close inshore during the summer making them ideal prey for penguins. The maximum recorded age is five years. The Falkland Sprat also lives along the Patagonian coast between 43° 30'N and 55° S.

Magellanic penguins encounter a number of predators at sea such as sea lions, leopard seals and orcas. They also face predation of chicks and eggs by avian predators such as caracaras, gulls and skuas although, by nesting in burrows, such predation is greatly reduced. The Falkland Skua is amongst the fastest and most skilled of all the flying birds. Add to that power and strength, high intelligence and longevity and the penguins have a formidable foe. Skuas are quick to spot any weak or infirm “Jackasses” and often attack them in mobs. Being without the claws and hooked beaks of hawks, skuas have to rely on each other to take hold of different parts of their prey in order to tear it apart. Falkland Skuas are entirely pelagic during the southern winter and come ashore in the Falklands only between October and April. The illustration shows part of their distinctive “courtship walk”. They nest in loose colonies, often close to their prey which, in addition to Magellanic Penguins, also includes other penguins and prions. They also specialize in harrying and forcing shags to re-gorge their food in flight over the ocean.

⭕️Penguin 2014

From left to right :

Macaroni Penguin (馬可羅尼企鵝) ; Adelie Penguin (阿德利企鵝)

Chinstrap Penguin (南極企鵝) ; Gentoo Penguin (巴布亞企鵝)

Emperor Penguin (皇帝企鵝)
British Antarctic Territory (2014)
19th November, 2014. Singy

Of the 17 different species of penguin the emperor and Adélie make the Antarctic continent their true home, whilst the chinstrap, gentoo and macaroni breed on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, where conditions are less harsh. 

Penguins are the most common birds in the Antarctic with the total number of breeding pairs in the region estimated to be about 20 million. They were once thought to be the most primitive of birds. Members of Captain Scott’s famous expedition went on what they described as “the worst journey in the world” in the Antarctic winter to obtain an emperor penguin embryo to prove this point. But they were wrong — penguins are highly evolved to be able to live in the coldest of places.

Whilst penguins cannot fly they have evolved into the most efficient swimmers and divers of all birds. Some species spend 75% of their time at sea and one female emperor penguin was recorded at an astonishing depth of 535m.

As penguins are rarely seen underwater our main impression of them is confined to how they appear on land. With their legs set far back for efficient movement underwater, the penguins walk awkwardly in a very upright position. This is possibly the reason for their extraordinary appeal — they look like funny little people.

Emperor Penguin (皇帝企鵝)
British Antarctic Territory (2014)
19th November, 2014. Singy

Adelie Penguin (阿德利企鵝)

  British Antarctic Territory (2014)
19th November, 2014. Singy

Macaroni Penguin (馬可羅尼企鵝)

  British Antarctic Territory (2014)
19th November, 2014. Singy

⭕️Extra definitive stamps of Ireland

Mute Swan (疣鼻天鵝) ;
Great Spotted Woodpecker (大斑啄木鳥)

 Ireland (2015)
1st September, 2015. Dublin

An Post increased the standard domestic letter rate again from 68c to 70c on 2015. As the new rate effective on July 1, An Post released couple of new coils and booklet stamps, those stamps still as well as Biodiversity definitive series. However An Post did not have special postmark to match those stamps, here are the maxicard and cover of the stamps.

Mute Swan is a species of swan, and thus a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species. Measuring 125 to 170 cm in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange bill bordered with black. It is recognisable by its pronounced knob atop the bill.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker can be found in both broadleaved and coniferous woodlands and forests and recently has been spotted in gardens and parks. They feed on seeds, invertebrates, and occasionally bird eggs and nestlings. During spring they can be heard ‘drumming’; a sound produced by rapidly pecking on a dead branch or other resonant object.

Mute Swan (疣鼻天鵝) 

Ireland (2015)

1st July, 2015. Dublin

⭕️Singapore Botanic Gardens UNESCO World Heritage Site

Singapore Botanic Gardens (新加坡植物園)

Singapore (2015)
7th August, 2015. Killiney Road

Established in 1859, the Singapore Botanic Gardens played an important historical role in the introduction and promotion of many plants of economic value to Southeast Asia, including the Para rubber tree.

Over the years, the Gardens has continued to introduce and rejuvenate its horticultural attractions while continuing its mission of connecting plants and people.

Today, the 74-hectare Gardens is a key civic and community space, and an international tourist destination. Attracting an annual visitorship of more than 4.4 million, it is also an important institution for tropical botanical and horticultural research, education and conservation.

The Gardens showcases the best and most spectacular of tropical flora, including more than 10,000 types of plants and the region’s most significant living collection of documented palms, orchids, cycads and gingers. Its historic 19th century garden landscape is well preserved and includes the earliest ornamental designed lake in Singapore. Home to numerous heritage trees and a tract of primary rainforest, the Gardens is less than a 10-minute walk from the shopping belt in Orchard Road. The Gardens was inscribed as Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

Up : Oriental Pied Hornbill (冠斑犀鳥)
Bottom : Lesser Whistling Duck (栗樹鴨)

Singapore (2015)
14th August, 2015. Tanglin

Singapore Botanic Gardens (新加坡植物園)

Singapore (2015)
7th August, 2015. Singapore

Golden Oriole and Golden Plover

From left to right :
€1,42 : Eurasian Golden-Plover (歐金斑鴴) ; €0,71 : Golden Oriole (金黃鸝)
Latvia (2015)
28th June, 2015. Liepaja

Golden Oriole is the only member of the oriole family of passerine birds breeding in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. It is a summer migrant in Europe and western Asia and spends the winter season in central and southern Africa. Golden orioles have an extremely large range with large populations that are apparently stable. Therefore, they are evaluated as least concern by BirdLife International.

European Golden Plover is a largish plover. This species is similar to two other golden plovers. American golden plover, Pluvialis dominica, and Pacific golden plover, Pluvialis fulva, are both smaller, slimmer and relatively longer-legged than European golden plover, and both have grey rather than white axillary feathers.

⭕️Iraqi birds

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (藍頰蜂虎)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

Nature Iraq conducts scientific studies on biodiversity including birds, plants, mammals, and other taxa. In addition, through the laboratories and field staff of Blue Horizons, a private lab that Nature Iraq helped to establish, Nature Iraq has conducted sampling of water quality physical and chemical parameters and conducted sediment and bacterial analysis.

Also Nature Iraq has helped to build civil society networks to activate grassroots support for the protection of the environment, particularly the marshlands of southern Iraq and the watersheds of Kurdistan, northern Iraq. Further, Nature Iraq strives to build capacity within Iraq, both in government and in academia, to help restore and protect the environment.

European Robin (知更鳥)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

 Common Kingfisher (普通翠鳥)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

Tree Sparrow (麻雀)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

European Goldfinch (紅額金翅雀)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

⭕️Wildlife in Oman

First row :
Indian Roller (棕胸佛法僧) ; Arabian Scops Owl (阿拉伯角鴞)
 Sooty Falcon (烟隼)
Second row :
Bruce's Green Pigeon (黃腹綠鳩) ; Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (藍頰蜂虎)
 Rüppell's Weaver (麗臉織布鳥) 
  Oman (2014)
26th August, 2015. Ruwi

Oman witnesses huge swarms of migratory birds during their seasonal journey between their nesting habitats and the places where they spend winters, especially those birds migrating from Europe and East Asia. Many birds, especially water fowl, migrate from faraway regions like northern Siberia, and travel about five thousand kilometres.

Visitors can see many species of birds in each of Oman’s different regions. Al Hikman Peninsula, Masirah Island, Al Wusta Governorate beaches, the Lagoons, the beaches and springs in Dhofar are ideal places for bird observation. Many of these species live in Dimaniyat Islands and in Musandam.

Indian Roller (棕胸佛法僧)
Oman (2014)
7th July, 2015. Ruwi