Father Goose

Father Goose is an autobiography written by William Lishman first published in 1995. The Fly Away Home motion picture is in great part based on this book. Summary In Father Goose, William Lishman tells his life story, focusing primarily on his work within Operation Migration, raising Canada geese and teaching them to follow an ultralight aircraft in order to reintroduce them to their native habitat, the geese being used as a trial to eventually work with endangered migratory birds such as the Whooping crane and the Trumpeter swan.

Lishman narrates his childhood spent in the Ontario country where he had the opportunity to observe the behaviour of geese raised on the family farm. Lishman developed an early itch to fly and enrolled with the cadets, but could not become an Air Force pilot because of partial colour blindness. He spent time with relatives in England where he acquired wood-carving skills from old masters before returning to Canada to study Art. After graduating, he rented an old blacksmith's shop as a studio where he worked on several projects with the help of a few friends. On a trip to Mexico, Lishman met his wife Paula Vockeroth with whom he settled in Blackstock, Ontario and had three children, Aaron, Geordie and Carmen. Lishman tells of his early financial difficulties and of the Lunar Lander and Autohenge projects as well as his participation in an IMAX film.

When Lishman began flying hang gliders and ultralight aircrafts, he once had wild geese forming around his plane and was enthralled with the experience. He knew his neighbour Bill Carrick had raised geese and taught them to fly following his boat and thought geese could certainly be imprinted to follow an aircraft. His early experiments came to the attention of Doctor William Sladen of the Airlie Centre near Warrenton, Virginia who hoped this technique could help save the endangered Trumpeter swan. A team was put in place to imprint a few cygnets, but they were confiscated by the Canadian Wildlife Service because of a zealous bureaucrat who claimed their permits to proceed with the experiment were not valid. Court action would have been too costly, and Lishman did not insist.

Lishman decided to continue his work, this time with approved documents, to imprint Canada geese and lead them to Airlie Centre in Virginia as a trial to eventually work with endangered birds. The non-profit Operation Migration organisation was founded to pursue the project with Lishman and Joseph Duff as pilots and Geordie Lishman, Kirk Goolsby, Chris Fox and David Woodhouse on the ground. Lishman descibes in great detail his two successful migrations with geese finding their way back to Blackstock on their own the following Spring and concludes with his hopes for the survival of the endangered birds to be involved in future operations.