Drought Affects on Wild Animals

        Dry conditions are forcing farmers to fight for their water.
        Even changing the type of animals you'll see this spring.
        For animals like birds of prey including bald eagles, their numbers right now are actually up.
        George Folsom is a birder working with the San Joaquin River Parkway. Folsom is eyewitness to trends and changes in local wildlife.
        "Every trip that we've been up here, say half a dozen trips in the last month I've seen bald eagles," said Folsom.
        Folsom said that lately, our foothills have been filled with unusually greater numbers of bald eagles, red-tail hawks, golden eagles, turkey vultures and other birds of prey.
        For many creatures and people the drought has been a hardship. But, in the Sierra Foothills and Valley Grasslands due to the drought the grass has not been as tall or as prolific as on an average year. That apparently causes the squirrels, gophers and other rodents to travel long distances to get food. 
        Some of them will migrate north as temperatures get warmer while others may nest and stay here at places like Millerton lake.