Parahawking is an interactive experience of gliding with birds of prey

[littlemissmartypants]

Parahawking is an interactive experience of gliding with birds of prey, combining paragliding with falconry

Trained birds of prey fly with paragliders, leading them to thermals

📹 Uru_Fly

Link to tweet

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[Nittersing]

1. I would SO do this!!!

Wonder what the birds think about having humans join them in the air!

[Mister Ed]

3. I actually experienced something like this once.

It's been many years since I've done any skydiving, but there were a couple of years when my wife and I did it fairly regularly.

I once took a jump on the last planeload of a beautiful day in July, under a crystal-blue sky, with the sun sinking low in the west. Once I was under canopy I saw, far down past my boots, a seemingly tiny red-tailed hawk circling over the lush green trees and cornfields.

I gave it no further thought as I slowly circled and descended under my parachute. Modern parachutes, of course, are actually highly-maneuverable lightweight gliders that can been very precisely controlled. I was surprised when, minutes later, I suddenly drew up alongside that same hawk, scarcely twenty feet to my right.

I softly said "Hi" to the hawk, which stared back at me with its golden, dime-sized eye reflecting the sunset. We glided along next to each other in silence for fifteen or twenty seconds, and then the hawk slowly wheeled away.

I felt quite humbled, and knew that I had experienced something truly rare and unique. For how many people in the course of human history have known how it feels to fly along in formation with a hawk?

[Nittersing]

4. I'm certain I would also feel humbled

Thanks for sharing your experience. What a gift you enjoyed!

[Ocelot II]

5. A friend described a similar experience with a bald eagle.

He was flying a regular glider, and an eagle came right up alongside him, and it seemed like the eagle was trying to nudge him into a thermal. The eagle flew with him for awhile, then suddenly dove away. He said it was the coolest thing ever.