William Lishman is one of Canada's foremost sculptors. He is also a writer and a filmmaker. But perhaps his most unusual accomplishment—and the one for which he has gained the most attention (including being the subject of the 1995 hit film "Fly Away Home")—is that he managed to persuade dozens of birds that he, or at least his home-grown airplane, is the birds' parent.

        From early childhood, Lishman dreamed of flying airplanes. He joined the Cadets (a Canadian organization that trains young people for careers in aviation), but he was disqualified when a medical exam revealed that he was colorblind and dyslexic.

Unable to work as a military or commercial pilot, Lishman turned his attention ultralight planes, becoming a pioneer in ultralight aviation in the 1970s.

        In the 1980s, Lishman saw a movie, "Skyward," that showed a flock of geese that had learned to follow a boat as if the boat was their mother. Lishman, who had been long interested in wildlife and particularly birds, wondered whether geese could be persuaded to follow an a plane, with the plane (and Lishman) at the point, or lead, bird. He contacted William Carrick, the animal trainer for the film. He proposed his idea, and with Carrick's help began to prepare for what became his 1988 historic ultralight flight with 12 Canadian geese behind him.

        Lishman was exhilarated with his success because of its possible practical application: he thought he could use his technique to help birds fly new routes to safe wintering locations. Because some traditional migration destinations are lost each year to development , pollution, or other environmental problems, migrating can sometimes be without a safe winter home. Lishman felt that if he could teach birds to migrate to new, safe destinations, he could help preserve birds, especially endangered species of birds.

        In 1993, Lishman and photographer Joseph Duff led 18 geese on a flight 400 miles long, from Ontario , Canada, to the state of Virginia. The team repeated their success in 1994 and 1995, when they led geese almost 800 miles to a preserve in South Carolina. Although their sights were set on eventually helping endangered species, Lishman and Duff continued to work with non-endangered geese to reduce technical and environmental risks. The success of the project inspired to raise funds for future migration studies. In 1994, they founded Operation Migration, a non-profit organization registered as a charity in both Canada and the United States.

        Since that time, Operation Migration has conducted nine studies of migratory birds. Most recently, its staff has been working with sandhill cranes.  Although sandhill cranes are not an endangered species, they are providing the Operation Migration team with useful information that will be used to try to help their endangered cousins, the whooping cranes. The entire whooping crane population consists of only 188 birds, living in only one flock. The Operation Migration team hopes to lead a Whooping crane migration in 2001. Once the flock has learned a safe migration route, the birds will be able to do it again on their own. Lishman, and his plane, can go on to other projects.