Few Flock to San Juan : Weather Thins Crowd Looking for Swallows

In years past, residents of San Juan Capistrano kept the grounds of the mission well watered before St. Joseph’s Day to ensure migrating swallows ample mud to build their nests.

But this March 19, no such efforts were necessary.

The 215-year-old Spanish mission had plenty of mud Tuesday, thanks to an early morning downpour. However, swallows and tourists were in scarce supply.

“This is the coldest and rainiest St. Joseph’s Day I’ve ever seen,” said Paul Arbiso, the 97-year-old mission patriarch who has announced the fabled March 19 arrival of swallows for more than six decades.

In accordance with tradition, Arbiso rang the church bells shortly after 8 a.m.--supposedly, upon his first sighting of the famed birds. Visitors searched the cloudy skies for a sign of the legendary miracle, only to grumble such observations as “Just some more pigeons.”

Had Arbiso actually spotted a flock of swallows?

“No,” he bluntly answered. “The people like to hear the bells, so I rang them. I don’t know--maybe the weather scared the swallows away.”

Apparently, the weather also scared tourists away. Sunnier mornings have reeled in thousands of visitors on St. Joseph’s Day; however, only about 300 braved the chilly winds Tuesday to witness the swallows’ return.

A handful of early arrivers sought shelter from the cold at Cafe Capistrano, across the street from the mission, where they sipped coffee while awaiting the tolling of the bells.

“Last year, hundreds of people were lined up to get inside when we opened at 6 (a.m.),” said waitress Cindy Sanchez. “A lot of times, people have spent the night in their cars. This year is totally different.”

A customer burst through the door and jokingly demanded: “All right, where are the birds?”

Another customer, John Lewis of Dana Point, said he has lived in Orange County for 15 years but unintentionally waited until the first rainy Swallows Day since 1961 to pay the traditional homage.

“They (the swallows) will show up at some point this morning, but I think they’ll wait until I’m through eating breakfast,” the real estate broker predicted.

Karen Martens left her home in Sierra Madre in Los Angeles County at 5 a.m. to catch the event she has “heard about forever.

“I just moved to California from Minneapolis, and I’ve always wanted to see the swallows return,” said Martens, a makeup artist. “I had visions of the sky being black with swallows. But I called the (San Juan Capistrano) Chamber of Commerce a few days ago, and they were quite honest. They said that when the mission was first built, probably thousands of swallows came to it, but now the swallows have a lot more buildings where they can make their nests.”

Back at the mission, visitors mulled around the cobblestone courtyard, studying the trees for swallows and listening for the bells’ announcement.

In a fleeting moment of excitement, a group of onlookers exclaimed that they had seen some swallows among the trees. Amateur bird-watcher Kathy Shay, a student from Olympia, Wash., soon burst their bubble. “Those are waxwings,” she corrected, peering through her binoculars.

San Juan Capistrano resident Marianne Taylor strolled her well-bundled baby, Harrison, through the courtyard. “My husband and I have seen some swallows in our yard over the past couple of weeks, but we’re not supposed to admit that,” she said. “But I haven’t seen any here today.”

Audrey and Leonard Rubin, however, said they had seen a few of the elusive birds. “At least, we think we did,” Audrey said.

The couple, both attorneys from Chicago, had ventured westward to welcome the swallows. “We got a lot of ribbing from our friends when they heard we were coming out here,” Leonard Rubin confessed. “They said: ‘You’re going all the way to California just to see some swallows? We’ve got swallows in Chicago.’ ”

Many of the cold tourists began shuffling back to their cars soon after Arbiso rang in St. Joseph’s Day. As the skies cleared, a second wave of visitors began to arrive for the day’s festivities: a church Mass, an American Indian dance and the crooning of “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano”--as always, performed by Rafael Rene, son of Leon Rene, who composed the popular ‘30s song.

Some scheduled tour groups canceled their plans because of the unseasonably cool weather. “We didn’t feel it was appropriate for the children to be out in the bitter cold,” said Patricia Mulhaupt, principal of Irvine’s Springbrook Elementary School, which postponed a field trip to the mission.

“The children were relieved more than they were disappointed,” Mulhaupt added. “It was so cold this morning that when we rang the bell for the kids to come in from recess, they cheered. Believe me, that’s not typical.”