Letter from Portugal (Azores)

Wow! I was really impressed by this letter I received last Friday. It was sent to me by André de Melo from Portugal. He has his own blog, you can see it by following the link 'Stampstraveler' in my list with interesting blogs.

I had seen that André wanted to have all Europa 2008 stamps on cover, so I sent him a cover with the self-adhesive version of the Belgium Europa 2008 stamp.
I had never expected to get such nice FDC in return. Moreover, the stamps are WWF stamps and this makes this cover extremely interesting for me.

Thank you very much for this really nice cover, André!



The two upper stamps picture the Atlantic Blue Marlin (Makaira nigricans). This fish is blue-black above, with a silvery white underside. As you can see on the stamps, it has a long, stout bill.

Atlantic blue marlins primarily feed on a wide range of fish. They swim through schools of fish at high speeds, slashing at fish with their bills. After the attack, they come back to eat the dead or stunned ones.

It is one of the largest bony fish species in the world, and also one of the world's most aggressive fish.


The two bottom stamps picture the White Marlin (Tetrapturus albidus). White marlin are large fish with a large upper jaw that forms a spear which is round in cross-section. They occur in small groups consisting of several individuals.

The fish usually migrates to high latitudes in the warm season.

Unlike the Atlantic Blue Marlin, the White Marlin is not dangerous for humans.

WWF Croatia

YES! :)

Another WWF cover to take up in my collection, thanks to Dragan Buskulic from Croatia. Here it is:



Dragan knows that I collect WWF stamps, and he was so kind to send me a cover franked with WWF stamps as soon as he got some. I am really very happy for this!

It's actually quite funny to see that Dragan sent me this cover at the same time that I sent him a cover from Luxembourg (where I was on vacation). I saw a stamp on the Olympic Games (the same one that appears on the cover I sent to myself... :)), and I immediately thought about Dragan and his Olympic Games collection.

It's nice to help each other, isn't it? :)

Anyway, the bird on the stamps is the Little Tern (Sterna albifrons). This bird species is - as all other animal species that appear on the WWF stamps - in great danger.

Little terns reach 22 to 24 cm in length from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail, and they only weigh 40 to 60 grams. Their wings are quite long (50 to 55 cm).

You can find a very interesting text, written byDragan Radović, about the Little Tern on the website of the Croatian Post. I refer to it because I can't tell it better nor shorter :)
http://www.posta.hr/main.aspx?id=193&idmarke=1177

Cover from Poland --> WWF!!

I'm very happy to be able to show you a new WWF cover. This cover was sent to me by Roman Sudzik from Gdansk. Thank you very much for this nice cover, Roman!

Unfortunately the cover got a bit damaged at the left side, but the stamps are undamaged and that's what counts!



The two stamps on the cover are part of a serie of 4 WWF stamps on the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus).

The bird is a cousin of the eagle and is a carnivore. The birds can reach a weight up to one and a half kilo.

As we can suspect from the name and the stamps, the birds are hunting on fishes. Unlike most other fish eating birds, these birds catch the fish with their legs, which makes the hunting very spectacular.
Osprey is a protected animal species in Poland. At this moment, only 30 couples of ospreys live in Poland, mainly in the north of the country.

Also notice the very nice postmark on the envelope, which apparently commemorates '660 years of the town Puck'. Puck is an old fisherman's town in north-west Poland.