In the late afternoon of 2 November 1985, Trochet heard the quiet tapping of a woodpecker. He was hiking along the South Fork of Pine Creek, about 2½ miles from the Pine Creek trailhead in the South Warner Wilderness area of the Warner Mountains, Modoc County, extreme northeastern California. Trochet traced the tapping to its source and was surprised to discover a male Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides tridactylus). The bird was working the north side of a large White Fir (Abies concolor), 30–35 feet above the ground, and was easily approached as it probed on broken branch stubs with a heavy growth of lichen.