Joy Ditto talks public power, warbler fallout at High Island

Apr 09, 2021

Public power in an era of blackouts, a fallout at High Island, birds make you happier

This week flew past without me publishing as much as I had hoped. Much of my time was consumed in prepping for and recording the podcast. Many things are happening on the political front in Texas and the U.S. with regard to the electric grid, subsidies, and regulation. I will be publishing a lot on those topics in the coming weeks. These items today:

Joy Ditto of American Public Power Association on the podcast
Warblers aplenty at High Island
Birds make us happier

(Above is the Black-throated Green Warbler. We saw many of them last week at High Island. Photo credit.)

Joy Ditto, CEO of the American Public Power Association on the podcast

The American electric grid is a marvel of complexity and shared political and economic power. The U.S. has the most diffused ownership of any grid on the planet. More than 3,000 different entities pump juice into the grid, which delivers about $400 billion worth of electricity per year. About two-thirds of those entities are publicly owned outfits like my hometown provider, Austin Energy. Publicly owned power companies supply about 15% of the electricity sold in the country. (I mention many of these points in A Question of Power.)

Those facts were among the many reasons I wanted to talk to Joy Ditto, the CEO of the American Public Power Association. This week on the Power Hungry Podcast, Joy and I talked about public power in the U.S., the history of which began in 1880 in Wabash, Indiana. We talked about the lessons that should be learned from the California and Texas blackouts, realistic timelines for decarbonizing the electric grid, the importance of baseload power generation, and why, in her words, “we need to rethink how we value reliability and supply.”

It was a good conversation. Give it a listen by clicking here.

Our first fallout

The birdwatching equivalent of the rapture is what’s known as a fallout. Last Saturday afternoon, Lorin and I experienced our first fallout, albeit a fairly small one. While standing on First Street in High Island, near the entrance to the Hooks Woods Sanctuary, we saw dozens of warblers flying among the trees and bushes on both sides of the street. Within a few minutes, we identified three different warbler species, including Northern Parula (Setophaga americana), Black-throated Green Warbler (Setophaga virens), and the Hooded Warbler (Setophaga citrina), which is pictured above.

All of them were magnificent. It was a joy to see so many colorful warblers in such a short amount of time. Making it even more enjoyable was the fact that over the previous 24 hours or so, we hadn’t seen many birds at all. At Houston Audubon’s Boy Scout Woods, the trees were unusually quiet. The same was true at the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, which is a few miles west of High Island. The warm, mild, weather had, it seemed, kept the birds at bay. But at about 5 pm, on First Street, the trees came alive with warblers for about 30 minutes.

To be clear, there are many stories about bigger fallouts at High Island, which is one of the best places in North America to see birds on their spring migration. But for us, seeing so many warblers, and at times having them so close we didn’t need binoculars, was among the most thrilling moments I’ve had as a birdwatcher. It was also rewarding because it was our first trip back to High Island in more than a decade. Parenting, work, and other obligations had prevented us from making the four-hour drive from Austin. But last week, we finally made it back. We were rewarded with warblers.

Birds make humans happier

As you’ve surely noticed, I use this “news” letter to share my love of birds and birdwatching. Yes, I will continue sharing my latest podcasts, presentations, and articles about energy, power, innovation, and politics. But birds are a passion of mine. And I know from personal experience that whenever I stop to consider the birds of the air, it makes me happier. (The photo above shows a Northern Parula Warbler. Lorin and I saw lots of them last Saturday. Photo credit.)

This week, my sister, Eileen Bryce, pointed me to a wonderful article by Julia Zarankin, who cited a pair of studies which found that birds contribute to human happiness. In the piece, published January 5, Zarankin wrote:

I believe more strongly than ever that birding is the antidote to despair. This feeling has resonated with many in these uncertain pandemic times. Birding has seen an explosion of interest as an ideal activity that can be practiced near home and with safe social distancing. During the initial waves of the pandemic last spring, for example, usage of Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird app and participation in its Global Big Day . Sales of bird seed, bird houses, and other birding supplies have soared this year as more people have spent time looking up. A growing body of scientific evidence also shows that the joy delivered by birds isn’t just anecdotal. Research increasingly links exposure to nature—and specifically, exposure to birds—with improved wellbeing. In December, a new study by the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research connected greater bird biodiversity to increased life-satisfaction for more than 26,000 people in 26 European countries. It turns out the people who live near natural areas with a greater diversity of bird species were demonstrably happier. In fact, the study found that seeing 10 percent more bird species generates satisfaction on par with a comparable increase in income.

She concluded: "There’s no other way to say it: Birds really do make us happy. They force us to stop and pay close attention, to notice details more acutely. When we’re out birding, we’re experiencing the joy of being fully immersed in the present moment..."

There you have it. Birdwatching brings happiness. Time to grab your binoculars.

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