Seattle Times: “This is an edited excerpt from Paul Bannick’s new book, “Woodpecker: A Year in the Life of North American Woodpeckers.” (Published by Braided River, an imprint of Mountaineers Books, $39.95). In the early spring as night’s darkest hour melts to dawn, you can hear the haunting calls of owls, soon followed by the coos of doves, and gradually joined and replaced by harmonious singing from secreted performers in every direction. The high-pitched melodic trills of robins below, the ascending flutelike calls of thrushes above, the accelerating whistling of warblers, and the cheerful song of wrens surround you. Each adds to a sense of peace as their exquisite songs blend as one choir, making it difficult to separate one singer from another until a primal beat from the heart of the forest adds rhythm to the mix. The woodpecker’s pulsing cadence shifts the mood from transcendent to urgent. At moments of their choosing, these birds demand to be noticed. They raise crowns of gold or scarlet as they bob, sway and scream, and find the most resonant objects to strike, drumming signature beats with their impressive bills. Woodpeckers are deliberate. They drop or dart through the air and scramble up the vertical face of trees like the most skilled climbers, balancing the weight of stocky bodies between the anchor points of a stiff tail and the claws of large feet. These “tools” propel them up trees before they reanchor. To close distances quickly while flying, they pull their wings against their body, lower their head, and free fall as they weave between blossoms, twigs, limbs and trunks like heavy arrows with bright feathered shafts. Intricately marked wings flash open like capes to break their fast fall and impress their rivals or mates. Woodpeckers capture our attention with their charismatic and at times seemingly playful and whimsical ways, belying their mission as essential agents of transformation in the places they inhabit…”