Bald eagle

The Bald eagle is one of the few returning signs of animal life in Hig’s account of a landscape altered by warming and drought. Seen near Jasper’s creek, it belongs to a world where some species persist or reappear while others, including the trout Hig mourns, have vanished.

Sightings and Setting

Hig reports seeing Bald eagles along Jasper’s creek. The observation comes during a flight through a wider landscape where wildlife is moving and changing: Bison are returning to their old range, and Osprey have also appeared near the creek. The Bald eagle is not given a separate encounter or behavior; its significance rests on its presence within this broader inventory of surviving animals.

A Changed Ecosystem

The sighting stands against a record of ecological loss. Hig describes the trout as gone and names elk among the animals that have disappeared. Earlier, he feared that warming streams and declining water would also kill fish able to tolerate warmer conditions. His concern extends beyond individual species: in mid-April, he reflects that familiar seasonal benchmarks have become unreliable, with some recent winters leaving the mountain peaks nearly bare of snow.

At the same time, the landscape is not presented as wholly lifeless. Hig notes abundant mice, hawks, and crows, and says spruce, fir, and aspen are coming back across stretches of dead forest. The Bald eagle’s appearance belongs to this uneven picture of loss and persistence; it does not establish that the former ecosystem has recovered.

Narrative Significance

Hig’s brief mention of the Bald eagle contributes to the book’s attention to animals as more than resources or background. In a narrative shaped by extinction and ecological grief, recording which creatures remain is an act of noticing that keeps the altered landscape specific. The eagle offers no promise that lost species will return. Its presence instead marks what Hig can still witness amid the disappearance of familiar life and the uncertain renewal of the forest.