One of my most exciting memories from my early days as a naturalist was the occasion of a trip to Lake Erie to see the whistling swan migration. The goal is to be at the Long Point marshes at about dawn to witness the swans taking off from their roosting place far out in the marsh to continue their migration to their arctic breeding grounds. We stood in the damp, chilly, gray dawn hoping to see or hear something. Suddenly they were there — great silvery shapes coming out of the mist and passing remarkably low over our heads. The lone swan pictured here is searching for the flock to settle down for the night on the broad, flat Lake Erie lowlands. The landscape is reminiscent of its wide open nesting grounds in the North. I have made the sky a very important element in the painting. It is wide and endless — it is the highway for these great birds. - Robert Bateman