Friday it thunderstormed around Sultan where I was teaching. I watched two
Pileated Woodpeckers perched high atop a couple of snags. The rain cut loose
in a typical thunderstorm downpour and one of the Woodpecker flew down into
a cedar, presumably taking cover from the heavy rain. The other however
stayed high up in a completely exposed perch during both heavy rain and then
hail. As the conditions went from bad to worse I kept expecting the Pileated
to fly into cover but it did not. It did raise up its "shoulder" feathers
but it did not fly. It was not foraging, it was looking around occasionally
and did not start pecking at the wood again until the rain had mostly
slackened. It sat for 6 minutes in very heavy rain and rain mixed with hail
and I was surprised that it did not take shelter as its companion had. Maybe
it's a macho bird thing.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
Snohomish County