This week in birds - #587

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

This is a joro spider and evidently we can expect an invasion of them in the eastern part of the continent this summer. They are venomous but shy and do not pose much of a threat to humans.

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Seabird populations can be devastated by tropical cyclones.

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Pharmaceutical and illegal drug pollution is a growing threat to wildlife.

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John James Audubon has long been honored for inspiring the conservation movement, but a closer examination of his life shows that he was a racist who profited from the slave trade.

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A woman in California was killed in an attack by a black bear, the first known attack of its kind. It is unclear what precipitated the attack.

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The revival of medieval farming practices in Europe is offering a welcome refuge to wildlife.

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It turns out that climate change is taking a toll on soil-dwelling invertebrates. 

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Amateur archaeologists in England are making an important contribution by identifying thousands of ancient sites.

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The world's largest wildlife bridge in California is meant to give wildlife a way to safely cross a 10-lane freeway.

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This is the invasive box tree moth, an East Asian species, which can be expected to wreak havoc on boxwoods in North America. 

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A new mountain lion, dubbed P-122, has been spotted in the Hollywood Hills where the famed lion P-22 once lived.

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Birds Canada has improved its Nature Counts app.

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Bird flu is abroad in the land again and has already caused a massive die-off of sea mammals.

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The world's oceans are facing threats from extreme heat, oxygen loss, and acidification.

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A new book offers some ways to halt the decline of oceans.

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Three kids made an amazing find in the North Dakota badlands - a dinosaur bone. And not just any dinosaur but a T. rex.

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Florida's coral reefs are under attack but they may be saved by spiny lobsters. 

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This is the Northern Waterthrush which was the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week last week.

And this is the Black-throated Gray Warbler, another recent Bird of the Week.

And this is the Bird of the Week for this week, the Yellow-throated Vireo.

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Plans to save an ailing Oregon forest include logging. Environmentalists are not happy about that.

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It's already hot here and expected to get a lot hotter as the long summer wears on.

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In Austria, a man has found 30,000-year-old mammoth bones in his wine cellar. 

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One of the world's rarest whales, the Pacific right whale, has been spotted in the waters off the coast of California. 

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Nature cams trained on the nests of birds provide views of Nature that can sometimes include the death of those birds.

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Giant trees can sometimes be destroyed by very small creatures - bark beetles.

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Plant pests often reproduce more quickly in hotter conditions. How do we keep them from destroying our gardens?

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Aging - living to a great age - is a gift and we should recognize that.

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Flamingos are returning to Florida and that is very good news.