I consider it an honor that the birds will share the air with us..I thermalled my Zagi with a hawk one afternoon...but the hawk is a wee bit more suited to thermalling, and he left me behind after awhile...it was a pretty good thermal to keep the clunky Zagi up..

Although not thermalling, the most amazing site I have ever seen was a squadron of Pelicans..about 6 or 8 of them - follow my delta winged jet around for two complete circles..I was flying high, wide, and slow, and they had no problem keeping up from the inside of the circle..and of all the people watching this, nobody thought to take a picture!!