Monday, April 20, 2015

Australian Antarctic Territory

Postcard of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) on the iceflows of Australian Antarctic Territory. Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of all penguins and are found across the Antarctic. It is the only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter, trekking over the ice, sometimes more than 100 km, to breeding colonies of thousands of individuals. 

Stamp from a 1993 set of three featuring Antarctic wildlife. Picture here the fur seal, a common breeder in Antarctica and in sub-Antarctic islands. Sent from Davis research station, the "capital" of Australia's Antarctic territory, with a summer population of 70 researchers.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Northern Mariana Islands

Postcard map of Saipan, largest island in the United States territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. I generally prefer straight-up standard picture postcards, but Northern Mariana Islands doesn't tend to figure on many people's travel itineraries, so I'll take what I can get. :-)

Northern Mariana Islands, like all United States territories, uses standard American stamps. Seen here is a stamp of Nine-Mile Prairie, a tract of conserved, virgin tallgrass prairie in Nebraska that has never been ploughed, making it an important site for the study of prairie ecology. The stamp, issued in 2001, is a part of a multiyear series on American landscapes.