New bird stamps from Lundy

By Christer Brunström

The Lundy Bird Observatory is the subject of a new set of five stamps issued by the island of Lundy on March 11, 2025. All five designs feature the work of Bideford, England, artist Sharon Read.

Read is certainly no newcomer when it comes to designing Lundy stamps. In 2017 she provided the artwork for a set of five stamps featuring a variety of birds found on the island. Each stamp in the new issue has the Lundy Bird Observatory logo in the form of a flying puffin in the lower right corner.

For the new set, Read provided the artwork, and it was Lars Liwendahl who, in collaboration with Read, turned Read’s art into suitable postage stamp designs that were then printed by Cartor in France.

The new set has the following values and designs: 40 puffin (oystercatchers), first-class (house sparrows), second-class (puffins), ROW (guillemots and razorbills), and 350p (waxwing). All the birds are shown with a backdrop of typical Lundy scenery. The total cost of a set of five is £8.90. The ROW stamp covers the rate to the rest of the world.

Cartor printed 27,000 each of the first-class and second-class stamps and 12,000 each of the remaining three values. It has also been reported that there were 500 presentation packs and 500 first-day covers of this new issue. The quantity printed is expected to meet the postal needs for the next two years.

The Lundy Postal Service normally issues a new set of stamps every two years. So far the island has issued some 400 different stamps.

There are excellent catalogs of Lundy stamps and postal history, and there is even a Lundy Collectors Club with a worldwide membership.

The island of Lundy is located in the Bristol Channel in the west of England and half way between North Devon and Wales. The island is famous for its rich birdlife and particularly for its puffins (the name of the island is believed to be Old Norse for Puffin Island). It is run by the Landmark Trust on behalf of the National Trust, and it is popular with people who enjoy Lundy’s remarkably dramatic scenery and its varied wildlife with many species of seabirds nesting on the island.

In 2023 Lundy rejoined a network of bird observatories throughout the British Isles and appointed a bird warden who keeps tabs on the development of the bird population.

The privately operated postal service was started in 1928 following the closure of the GPO post office on the island. The local post issued its first postage stamps in 1929, and the rest is history. It is by far the oldest privately run postal service in the world, and it handles all mail between the island and the British mainland.

The current rate schedule is simple — it copies the Royal Mail rates and then adds 25 puffins (the local currency, which is equal to the British penny) on each postcard or letter. A Royal Mail meter mark is used in addition to the Lundy stamps. Mailers thus need to affix Lundy stamps covering both the Royal Mail rate and the Lundy rate of 25p.

The local post handles thousands of mail items each year. The mail is carried by helicopter during the winter season and by the island’s own vessel during the summer period. On the mainland, it is handed over to the Royal Mail facility at Bideford in North Devon, England.

I doubt your friendly neighborhood stamp dealer stocks Lundy new issues. Fortunately the new 2025 stamps and several older issues can be purchased from the Lundy Postal Service. More information can be found on the Landmark Trust website.

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