United States:Otters in Snow

On 12 October 2021, the U.S. Postal Service issued a new Forever&reg; Booklet of 20 stamps featuring four different scenes of the alert and playful North American River Otter revelling in Winter's white landscape.

Issue Description
A denizen of riparian areas throughout most of the United States and Canada, this elegant long and sleek mammal (Lontra Canadensis) is designed for life in and around the water.

Besides webbed feet, it has a muscular tail, about 40 percent of its entire body length, that powers it in swimming and diving.

Otters may look a bit akward when walking, but they are nothing but graceful as they twist and loop through the water, slide down snowbanks or frolic in the fluffy white snow.

When they glide across ice to get to an opening and dive into the water below, it is because they depend on river creatures for their winter diet.

We may shiver at the thought, but their dense double-layered coats insulate them against the winter cold and keep them from freezing.

Issue Details
With original illustrations rendered in pen and ink, the stamps are arranged in Blocks of four.

From upper left and moving clockwise, they depict an otter poking its head - seen in three-quartersprofile - from the surface of an icy body of water; an otter sliding on its back, tail first, down a snowbank; an otter chest-deep in a snow drift, facing the viewer; and another otter sliding down a snowbank.

In the stationery poses, snow clings to the otters' fur.

In the views showing motion, small snowballs race the otters downhill.

First Day Covers
The first set of First Day Covers each feature a postage stamp (one design) from the Otters in Snow stamp issue affixed and cancelled with a pictorial Postmark as well as the date and location of issue - October 12, 2021, Otter, MT, 59062.

The second set of First Day Cover with Digital Colour Postmark each feature a postage stamp (one design) from the Otters in Snow stamp issue with a pictorial Digital Colour Postmark as well as the date and location of issue - October 11, 2021, Otter, MT, 59062.