Like many soaring pilots, I have shared dozens of thermals with raptors. Mostly, they seem happy for me to show them where the lift is.

Years ago, on another continent, I came across a huge flock of cranes flying between thermals at around 12,000 feet. As slow as I could fly, I still caught up with them. When I was about twenty feet behind them, they peeled away, let me through the gap and then re-formed behind me.

I think it's pretty hard for a sailplane to harass birds. Flying single-engine planes ten feet over a lake full of migratory birds is another matter entirely and well worth some ass-kicking.

Mike