Sunday Stamps -Birds: USA, Dubai

This has been one of my favourite themes for over the 10 years that I have been taking part in Sunday Stamps.

The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States was signed in 1916 and after 50 years in 1966 it was commemorated by -

USA - 16 March 1966

I have a spreadsheet on which I record each day the type of birds that I can see in or from my village garden. Occasionally each year I see a kestrel hovering over the fields nearby. However when I visit my daughter's home in Michigan I have yet to see the more colourful American kestrel - 

USA - 19 November 1999

This is the self-adhesive issue, the original stamp having been used from 1995.

I will never see two birds in my garden that appear on stamps from Dubai.

Dubai - 9 December 1968

I have enlarge these images in which you can clearly see just what they are.

To see what other birds have  been spotted this week just visit the links at Sunday Stamps

 

Sunday Stamps K3 - Canada, Hungary, Netherlands

I've watched the Detroit Pistons (once, when my camera's battery needed charging) and am kept informed every year on how the Detroit Lions are performing. Of course I've heard of the Stanley Cup and how the Redwings get on and whom this man on a Canadian stamp joined when he was only 19 years old back in 1947.

Canada - 3 October 2014

Apparently we became one of the 'Original Six' in ice hockey - I have still to find out who the others are and what's behind the name.

When it comes to protected birds this is one of my favourites and one I used to see regularly as a boy about the time that Red Kelly began to play for the Redwings.

Hungary - 27 June 1991
Kingfisher

We can sometimes see a bird of prey over the fields outside our village - it's quite easy to see why it is sometimes called a windhover. How would you feel if it had these eyes fixed on you?

Netherlands - 5 September 1995
Blauwe kiekendief (Kestrel)

To prey on other 'K' stamps fly over to Seeitonapostcard.Sunday Stamps - K

A-Z Challenge - 'K'

My A-Z posts this year are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – a sort of wish they were here.

K – Kestrel, Kite, Kingcup

‘K’ proved to be a problem letter until I remembered a common sight alongside Britain’s motorways.

Kestrel

 Up on the downs the red-eyed kestrels hover,

Eyeing the grass.

The field-mouse flits like a shadow into cover

As their shadows pass.

In our garden the only similar bird we see is the Sparrowhawk. The Red Kite another raptor is being reintroduced to many areas, but none near us. I shall have to make do with these instead:

Come fly a kite

I often sit and wish that I
Could be a kite up in the sky,
And ride upon the wind and go
Whichever way I chanced to blow.

Last year was the wettest for one hundred years in the UK. Parts of my garden became ideal for a member of the buttercup family which grows in marshy places.

Kingcups (Marsh Marigolds)

 And these cups for kings to hold

Made summer with their wide-eyed gold

Poems

• Up on the Downs – John Masefield
• The Kite – Anon
• Kingcups - Sacheverell Sitwell

Photo attributions:

• Kestrel - Andreas Trepte, www.photo-natur.de – CC BY-SA 2.5
• Kingcups – Keith Edkins – CC BY-SA 2.0 – Geograph project collection.