This is SO exotic, that you may have never even heard of it: NIUAFO'OU. A beautiful, continuous design is spread over these se-tenant stamps from Niuafo'ou (Tin Can Island). Also, see a gorgeous photo of Niuafo'ou taken by the non-claustrophobic crew of the International Space Station!

This is a courtesy specimen (see CANCELED over the denomination) created for the Global Stamp News magazine, as a promotion.

"Niuafoʻou (meaning: new coconut) is the most northerly island in the kingdom of Tonga. It is a volcanic rim island of 15 km² and with a population of 650 in 2006."

Cold Mountain? No, Stolen Mountain! 

"According to the myths, Niuafoʻou originally had a mountain, rather than a lake in the middle. 

But the mountain was stolen one night and became Tafahi."

And hot, too, as an active volcano.

An island with 3 islands in the lake from the middle!

Bonus: a 4th island, sometimes submerged in the lake waters.

Niuafo'ou from the International Space Station, 2005-03-19

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Satellite_view_of_Niuafo%27ou,_2005-03-19.jpg

"The island is located in the southern Pacific Ocean between Fiji and Samoa, 574 km north of Tongatapu island group and 337 kilometers northwest of Vavaʻu. It is a still active volcano.

Other names for the island are Good Hope island and Tin Can island. 

The latter name originated from the fact that, since the island has neither a natural harbor nor a wharf, in earlier times, mail was delivered and picked up by strong swimmers [ :) ] who would retrieve packages, "sealed up in a biscuit tin" and thrown overboard from passing ships. 

An early trader, named Walter George Quensell, acted as postmaster at that time and stamped the mail with colourful marks which have become a collectors' item. 

The Tongan government took over this tradition with special Niuafoʻou stamps since 1983.

Niuafoʻou is a volcano located on an underwater ridge 190 kilometres (120 mi) west of the line of all the other volcanoes of Tonga. 

The island contains a steep-sided caldera; the rim is over 120 metres (390 ft) high, rising to a height of 250 metres (820 ft) at Mokotu. 

The coastline is rocky and steep with only a few stony black sand beaches. 

The only landing place on the island is the end of a lava flow at Futu [MY NOTE: Futu, the only place where you can go AGAINST the flow, once it's cool to do it...], in the west. 

All the villages are in the north and east. 

Public places like the post office, telecommunications station and airport are in Angahā in the north, while a high school is located in Muʻa.

The island ring encloses two lakes. The largest, Vai Lahi, is a crater lake 23 meters above sea level, 4 kilometers wide, and 84 meters deep. 

The lake contains three islands and a submerged island that appears when the water level drops. 

Vai Lahi is separated from the smaller Vai Siʻi (or Vai Mataʻaho) by a desolate landscape of sand hills. 

The island is covered by forest on the inner walls of the crater lake, and on the island's eastern and western slopes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niuafo%27ou

Kingdom of Tonga Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Ko e ʻOtua mo Tonga ko hoku tofiʻa God and Tonga are my Inheritance
Anthem: Ko e fasi ʻo e tuʻi ʻo e ʻOtu Tonga
Capital (and largest city)		Nukuʻalofa 21°08′S 175°12′W
Official language(s)		Tongan, English
Demonym		Tongan
Government		Constitutional monarchy
-	King	George Tupou V
-	Prime Minister	Lord Tuʻivakanō
Independence
-	from Britishprotectorate	June 4, 1970
Area
-	Total	748 km2 (186th) 289 sq mi
-	Water (%)	4.0
Population
-	2009 estimate	104,000[1] (195th)
-	Density	139/km2 (76th1)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonga

===============

Happy Sunday Stamps meme!

Please visit: http://viridianpostcard.blogspot.com/

6 continents mixed in a maximum card with a WWF 50th Anniversary stamp from UK. The Russian postcard publisher stated on the back that the postcard image shows a гиена [hyena], but I "guaradamtee" you that it's an African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus)!

I have created this maximum card with elements connected, more or less, to 6 continents.

Africa: here's where this animal species lives in the wild.

Europe: the stamp is from the United Kingdom.

Europe and Asia: the postcard publisher is from Russia, a country with most of its territory in Asia.

South America and North America: the postmark shows a Blue-and-Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna), also known as the Blue-and-Gold Macaw, that lives mostly in South America, but also in Panama and Florida, USA. The Royal Mail UK did not let a dog (matching pictorial postmark) out, so I chose this one, with the parrot. 

It's all "in the family of WWF".

Australia: there's a captive breeding program for the African Wild Dog at the Monarto Zoo, Australia.

The Russian postcard publisher stated on the back that the postcard image shows a гиена [hyena], but that's a bunch of CROC! :)

Ka-kalinka maia...гиена maias.

:)

The animal depicted is the African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wild_dog

THIS is a Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta): 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crocuta_crocuta_-Ngorongoro_Conservation_Area,_Tanzania-8.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_hyena

Don't play pink-tongue with a "гиена" [hyena]!

====================

Happy Pink Saturday! (still open on Sunday!)

^{Please visit "Pretty in pink"/ "Show us your pink" [objects, that is :)] meme here:}

^{http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/}

Isn't that exotic? WWF maxicards from the fascinating "Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands", inhabited by the descendants of the mutineers from HMS Bounty and accompanying Tahitians. "With only about 50 inhabitants (from four families as of 2010: Christian, Warren, Young, and Brown), Pitcairn is the least populous jurisdiction in the world (although it is not a sovereign nation)." I show you "noddy, noddy" maxicards with Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus), Black Noddy (Anous minutus), Grey Noddy (Procelsterna albivitta) and Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus)

UL (Upper-left): "The Black Noddy or White-capped Noddy (Anous minutus) is a seabird from the tern family. It resembles the closely-related Brown or Common Noddy (A. stolidus), but is smaller with darker plumage, a whiter cap, a longer, straighter beak and shorter tail. It was long - and sometimes still is - included within the Brown Noddy.

"The Black Noddy has a worldwide distribution in tropical and subtropical seas, with colonies widespread in the Pacific Ocean and more scattered across the Caribbean, central Atlanticand in the northeast Indian Ocean. At sea it is usually seen close to its breeding colonies within 80 km of shore. Birds return to colonies, or other islands, in order to roost at night."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Noddy

UR: "The Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscatus (formerly Sterna fuscata^[1]), is a seabird of the tern family(Sternidae). It is a bird of the tropical oceans, breeding on islands throughout the equatorial zone. Colloquially, it is known as the Wideawake Tern or just wideawake. This refers to the incessant calls produced by a colony of these birds, as does the Hawaiian name ʻewa ʻewa which roughly means "cacophony".^[2] In most of Polynesia its name is manutara or similar however – literally "tern-bird",^[3] though it might be better rendered in English as "the tern" or "common tern". This refers to the fact that wherever Polynesian seafarers went on their long voyages, they would find these birds, and usually in astounding numbers."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sooty_tern

LL: "The Grey Noddy or Grey Ternlet (Procelsterna albivitta) is a seabird belonging to the tern family Sternidae. It was once regarded as a pale morph of the Blue Noddy (Procelsterna cerulea) but is now often considered to be a separate species."

"It feeds in shallow water, not moving far from the breeding colonies. It gathers in large feeding flocks which can contain thousands of individuals. They feed by hovering over the water and dropping down to pick food from the surface. Plankton forms the bulk of the diet and small fish are also eaten.

Breeding takes place in colonies on rocky islands. The nest site is a sheltered rocky surface or underneath a boulder or clump of vegetation. A single egg is laid. It is whitish with dark markings and is incubated by both parents for about 32 days. The young birds are fed on regurgitated food and fledge after around 35 days."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Noddy

        LR: "The Brown Noddy or Common Noddy (Anous stolidus) is a seabird from the tern family. 

The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related Black Noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black.  

The Brown Noddy is a tropical seabird with a worldwide distribution, ranging from Hawaii to the Tuamotu Archipelago and Australia in the Pacific Ocean, from the Red Sea to the Seychelles and Australia in the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean to Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic Ocean.  

The Brown Noddy is colonial, usually nesting on the in elevated situations on cliffs or in short trees or shrubs.  

It only occasionally nests on the ground.  

A single egg is laid by the female of a pair each breeding season. 

Etymology: Anous is Greek for "unmindful" (Harrison, 1990; see also nous), and stolidus means "impassive" in Latin (see also stolid).  

The birds are often unwary and find safety in enormous numbers. 

To sailors, they were well known for their apparent indifference to hunters or predators."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_noddy

=========

Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands Pitkern Ailen
Flag Coat of arms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific-Ocean-Pitcairn-Island-on-globe-view-English.jpg

St. Pauls Point, Pitcairn Island

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stpaulspoint.jpg

 "The Landing", Pitcairn Island

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pitcairnlanding.jpg

"The Pitcairn Islands ( /ˈpɪtkɛərn/;^[1] Pitkern: Pitkern Ailen), officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. 

The islands are a British Overseas Territory (formerly a British colony), the last remaining in the Pacific.^[2] 

The four islands – named Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno – are spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total area of about 18 square miles (47 km²). 

Only Pitcairn, the second largest and measuring about 2 miles (3.2 km) across, is inhabited.

The islands are best known as home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians (or Polynesians) who accompanied them, an event retold in numerous books and films. 

This history is still apparent in the surnames of many of the islanders. 

With only about 50 inhabitants^[3] (from four families as of 2010: Christian, Warren, Young, and Brown), Pitcairn is the least populous jurisdiction in the world (although it is not a sovereign nation). 

The United Nations Committee on Decolonisation includes the Pitcairn Islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.^[4]"

Please read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn_islands

=================

Happy PFF (Postcard Friendship Friday)!

Please visit: http://thebestheartsarecrunchy.blogspot.com/ (wait until Beth posts the today's Linky tool for the meme, then make your entry, if you want to join).