Have You Ever Seen a Flockdown Bird?

During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, people found different ways of coping. Berni Martin, who spends a lot of time crafting as well as taking photographs, also spends time watching birds outside the window of her first floor apartment on the British Island of Jersey. The birds are attracted to the feeders she hangs on the tree outside that window. To help cope with the Covid lockdown Berni decided to paint a bird for 100 consecutive days. She numbered each bird painting and  posted them on social media.

Jersey Post took notice and eight of Berni’s birds became stamps and went on sale March 1, 2021. “I was over the moon that they are now stamps,” Bernie said. “And I hope they make people smile and encourage people to send a postcard or letter to a loved one. It’s such a joy to receive a handwritten note in the post.”

Of her COVID painting project Berni commented, “It just kind of evolved as it went along. I love birds and they’re quite quick to paint. As I was doing one every day, I needed something easy to commit to. They all have personalities of their own and mostly they reflected the mood on the day they were painted…happy, sad, colorful, crazy, fat, sleepy, flyaway! It was so quiet in the first lockdown and the weather was so lovely, we had an abundance of birdy visitors outside our windows…they were the perfect subject. I had no idea when I created the birds that they would one day be featured on Jersey stamps, it was just a project I set myself and people seemed to enjoy them on social media so I kept it going. I think not knowing they would be stamps one day was good, there was no pressure to try and make them perfect. The original paintings have splashes of paint and some little imperfections here and there.”