Back in the day, a letter would be carefully composed, popped into an envelope and a stamp affixed. I can still taste the glue arabic on my tongue. After being delivered stamps were often cut off the envelope, re-cycled for charity or collected into albums. The serious collectors called themselves philatelists, most of us grew out of it when family and associated bills came along, myself included. Even though I don't collect and haven't for forty years I do enjoy looking at stamps and appreciate them as miniature pieces of art. I even sold my stamp collection to come to Canada.
Stamps would reveal much about foreign countries, their ways of life, their culture, their economy, even their wildlife. While some would collect world stamps others would choose a theme like fish, flowers or birds. To some, myself included stamps were portals into an exotic world in far off places. Through stamp collecting I learnt more about history and geography than sitting in any classroom and later it life piqued my interest in world travel. I have since visited many of the places depicted on the stamps I collected as a kid, the most memorable was Easter Island.
Recently I came across this link of Canadian bird stamps and some of the species found in Canada. I sent some of the links to fellow birders and they all enjoyed what they saw and couldn't believe how birds have been so well represented over the years. I thought I would share it with you. I hope you also enjoy their beauty.
At the bottom of the links page right is an arrow to take you more countries and their species. At least it was something interesting to look at on a rainy Saturday afternoon!
"It's never too late to start birding"
John Gordon
Langely/Cloverdale
BC Canada
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