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Title: “Two Down”
Prompt: What 10-letter creature has visited this puzzle grid?
Answer: WOODPECKER
Correct entries: 181 overall, 101 of which were solo

Strangely-sized grid last week (11×27), so odd stuff right off the bat. Our mystery critter left several hints as to his identity: first we had the title, “Two Down”; that answer was ARARAT in the grid, but wouldn’t the title there have it as “2-Down” if that were relevant? You virtually never see a crossword clue’s number written out like that instead of expressed with a numeral. So let’s see what else it could mean.

Savvy solvers theorized that “Two Down” might indicate Down entries with two words, a theory strengthened by the odd clue at 77-D: [Two-word natural container] for PEA POD. Pea pod can be one word or two, so why am I going out of my way to emphasize its two-word-ness?

Indeed, count up those two-word downs and there are exactly ten of them. They are, in grid order:

YE GODS
LIVE DEBATE
RANGE ROVER
LINEN CHEST
POLAR CAPS
PIN ON
LILA MCCANN
TEA PARTIES
BONY THORAX
PEA POD

Now what? Before we take a look, let’s note one other hinty clue: At 28-D we have [Take it from the ___ (what our creature did, you might say)] for TOP. These are all down clues, so the top letter or word in each entry might be relevant.

Looking again, you might notice that LIVE and RANGE can take an O at their start to make ORANGE and OLIVE. Those are colors, but they’re also trees, and doesn’t our grid have a tree-like look? And don’t many creatures inhabit trees?

And there’s the key: add one letter to each of those first words to get a kind of tree:

YE(W)
(O)LIVE
O(RANGE)
LIN(D)EN
PO(P)LAR
PIN(E)
LILA(C)
TEA(K)
(E)BONY
PEA(R)

Those new letters spell WOODPECKER, and what a clever bird we have here, leaving his mark on just the right trees.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a seven-letter, two-word phrase.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.