Sterna Paradisaea (Arctic tern), 1828

Original chromolithograph on wove (vellum) paper, from Svenska Foglar Efter Naturen Och Pa Stenritade, first published 1828, 15 x 11 in. (from the 1917–29 edition)

Private Collection

Finding two summers per year through their migratory circumnavigations of the globe, Arctic terns experience more daylight sky than any other creature on Earth. In its average 30-year lifespan, the bird travels enough sky to have flown three round trips to the Moon. An Arctic tern’s virtual orbit of the planet is in poetic synchronicity with the cyclic forces of an interconnected sky universe.