D402

Preservation of Wildlife Habitats

Badger

Collins Cover Announcement 

WILDLIFE HABITATS

These four stamps were issued in Reno, Nevada during this year's AFDCS Annual Convention. Many beautiful covers were produced by cachetmakers, and I think hat this set of four COLLINS FDCs will make an excellent addition to your collection. This set consists of:

Mountain Habitats - Cachet shows a bear standing in a swift mountain stream with a fresh caught fish. Snow peaked mountains rise in the background.

Wetlands Habitats - Cachet shows a blue heron standing in quiet solitude in a marsh. Still water, clear skies and tall reeds make the heron's habitat a contrast of blues and greens.

Grasslands Habitats - Cachet shows a wary badger approaching its burrow entrance. A sunny day provides for bright vivid coloring of the surrounding grassland environment. Puffy and billowing cumulus clouds provide an overhead background.

Woodland Habitats - A ruffled grouse stands proudly on a downed pine tree. Realistically colored, it seems to "belong" in this peaceful woodland setting. The Appalachian Trail passes within a 1/4 mile of my home, and this type of forest scene is typical as I take Becky and Tim on nature walks in search of wildlife. A grouse will either take off far ahead of a hiker or explode from right under foot in a heart-stopping instant of noise and feathers.

There is an interesting tale regarding the servicing of these covers. Arriving at the Reno Post Office at 8:00 a.m., my schedule called for completing the "First Day of Issue" cancels and getting to the Airport for a 1:00 p.m. flight via Golden Gate Airlines to Sacremento, Calif. From there, a taxi would take -ne to Woodland, Calif., site of my unofficial cancel.

Working at a fast rate, I arrived at the Reno Airport about 45 minutes before flight time. When I went to check in at Golden Gate, I was told the flight was canceled and that I could go to Sacremento on a 4:30 flight via Air Oregon! Of course, this was impossible, so I decided on a new plan of chartering a plane which I did at a small air service company at the Airport. I was happy when I found out that I could land at the small airport in Woodland thus skipping Sacramento. As I waited for the pilot, you can imagine my surprise when it turned out to be an elderly lady. What an enjoyable adventure it turned out to be - across the Rocky Mountains and back in a single engine plane with a flying grandmother.

The Woodland cancel is very well related to wildlife habitats, and I feel that these four covers, with only 500 sets done, will be much sought after once sold out. Item No. D401 (set of 4) - $22.00

Autum 2019 Mail Sale Commentary 

Lot 5 D401, D402, D403, and D404 — Wildlife Habitats (set of four) — 6/26/81

This is the set of covers that I carried twice over the Sierra Nevada Mountains with the "Flying Grandma." Once was on the way to Woodland, California for a wonderful and exclusive first day postmark, and the second time was with the completed covers going back to the AFDCS Convention in Reno. You can read about this exciting adventure on pages 40 and 41 of the book. The hand painted cachets are very attractive. They each have the official city Reno first day cancel and the hard-toobtain Woodlands first day postmark, which is perfect for the "wildlife habitat" theme. With the almost unbelievable saga of their creation now prominently published, I look for them to advance in value as time goes on. It's a solid set to own.