I think you should be complaining to the manufacturer of the pattern. not ECS!!!. ECS SELLS the pattern they don't make them. They also don't stitch everything they sell as that would be impossible, so maybe let the manufacturer know that they need to make the instructions clearer to understand.

I agree with terryd. Complain to the manufacturer not ECS.

Hello raeellen, Do not be dismayed! I completed this design back in 2015 and it is quite beautiful when complete! This is not as confusing as it seems. I am looking at the pattern. Go to the "search" box in this Chat Room and enter: Red Bellied Woodpecker. It will take you to my entry of March 2015. I attached a close up photo of the finished design. First of all...all of the thread colors from 1 through 24 show in the right hand column with a 2 under it. That means that for ALL of those symbols you use two threads and complete a full cross stitch. The ONLY thing that is different is color #21. The small down arrow to the left shows a 1 with an arrow down to the left meaning that you do a half cross stitch using only 1 thread...not two. Next, the down arrow in a box next to it...has a down arrow which connects you to the instructions using 1 thread, however, you will complete a FULL cross stitch with just one thread. The entire rest of the design is two threads....full cross stitches. My advice for you is to not be intimidated....find the center of this design as I did....begin there.....you will do many normal full cross stitches before you run into these slight variations. If you look at the picture I posted, you will easily see that you only do half cross stitches up near the throat and chest of the woodpecker....also, lower to the left and right side of his tale. That's it. I wish you good luck. I am going to frame this one myself. Let me know how you make out!
P.S. We have these woodpeckers living on our property....they are so beautiful.

I am simply "bringing this to the top" again......I hope raeellen didn't "throw the baby out with the bath water"!!! She would probably never dream that someone in this chat room actually completed this design!!!