XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

A new issue from Belgium is called "Real Woodpeckers of Belgium", which makes you ask whether they have a "Fake Woodpeckers of Belgium" issue planned for next year. However, the strange title doesn't really matter. Here we have five stamps (two large, three small) depicting Belgium's native woodpeckers. These are the Eurasian Green Woodpecker (left, top), the Black Woodpecker (left, bottom), the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (right, top), the Middle Spotted Woodpecker (right, mi

Like the Falklands Islands' Summer issue, this is another issue I discovered when looking for something to buy. I am not sure exactly when they were issued, but the Free Stamp Catalogue has only listed them this week so they are quite recent. Stamps showing birds are always very popular but there are also an awful lot of them and they can sometimes feel quite "samey". These are a bit different and it is helpful that in this photograph we don't just see the stamps but the full

Alderney has issued this set of six stamps to celebrate the work of Alderney Bird Observatory, which will go on sale tomorrow. The Guernsey Stamps website tells us a lot about the observatory. "Bird observatories across the British Isles provide a unique window into the lives of our feathered visitors. From remote islands in the north to coastal headlands in the south, these centres monitor bird migration, breeding, and population trends, revealing how species respond to ch

This new set of stamps showing birds was issued on 5th January. The Netherlands have created many distinctive and beautiful miniature sheets in the past and this one is another fantastic sheet that I think a lot of collectors will enjoy. There are ten stamps in the set, which celebrates Saba's birds. Like the more well-known Aruba and Curaçao, Saba is an island in the Caribbean Netherlands although it is not exactly a neighbour of these other islands - it is in the Windward

This week Royal Mail will be releasing a set of stamps featuring British ducks. They're very nice and I will be reviewing them in a few...