In the late 1980s, Lishman approached Bill Carrick, a naturalist who was working on imprinting on the behaviour of geese. Carrick provided goslings, who Bill and his children worked with daily, eventually doing twice-daily runs on a motorcycle with the geese flying with him, then switching to the ultra-light. In 1988, he became the first person to lead a flight of geese with an aircraft, and in 1993, the first to conduct an aircraft-led migration of birds

Lishman was one of a few who pioneered ultra-light aviation in Canada, and was the first Canadian to foot-launch and land a rigid-winged aircraft. His first aircraft was built in 1976, a combination of an Easy Riser hang-glider, a go-kart engine, and a propeller.