Woodpeckers for franking

1 February sees a new motif series for Åland Post’s franking labels when four common woodpeckers succeed the orchid series. Skilled animal and nature artist Bo Lundwall was the obvious choice of artist to capture the specific characters of the birds.

ADORNING THE 2019 FRANK ING labels are the great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major), lesser spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor), greyheaded woodpecker (Picus canus) and black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius). Bo Lundwall chose to illustrate male birds because they are slightly more colourful with their red crowns and forehead patches. For variation, he illustrated the birds in different seasons. Woodpeckers are primarily resident birds.

THE GREAT SPOTTED woodpecker is the most common Åland species of woodpeckers, breeding in all types of woodlands. It chisels into leafy trees to excavate nest holes. It has black and white plumage with a bright red patch on the lower belly. Its diet consists mainly of insects and larvae, in the winter also seeds from coniferous cones.

THE LESSER SPOTTED woodpecker is our smallest woodpecker. The back is barred in black and white and only the male has a red crown. It chips away at rotten wood to find wood-boring larvae and it thrives in old leafy woodlands as does the grey-headed woodpecker. The latter is green and may easily be mistaken for the European green woodpecker, which is larger and does not appear in Åland. The grey-headed woodpecker chisels its nesting holes in old aspen at the forest edge.

The first day cover features a pile of cones below a fir, revealing the “cone smithy” of a great spotted woodpecker. The bird wedges the cones into a crevice in the bark to be able to pick the scales, reaching the seeds. The first day cancel shows the end result of the woodpecker’s depredations.

THE BLACK WOODPECKER is a species that has increased in numbers of late. In the motif it sits in a pine tree, together with aspen its preferred species of nesting tree. It digs out its favourite food, carpenter ants, of dead trees. The black woodpecker is a rowdy type of bird, and its drummings may be heard at long distances, lasting considerably longer than those of the grey-headed woodpecker. The great spotted woodpecker has the shortest drum roll.

THE NEW TYPE of self-adhesive franking labels was launched in 2018. A series consists of four labels of identical value but of four different motifs.

FRANKING LABELS,

WOODPECKERS

DATE OF ISSUE: 1 February 2019 ARTIST: Bo Lundwall

DENOMINATION OF SERIES: 4 x €1.60

PRICE FDC: €7.20

SIZE: 56 x 25 mm, 1500 labels/roll PAPER: 40 gms thermal paper PRINTING METHOD: 4-colour offset

PRINTING HOUSE: Walsall Security Printing