The Swallows of Moorpark : Migration: The renegades bypass San Juan Capistrano’s mission for quieter tract houses. They aren’t always welcome.

Ah, the swallows of San Juan Capistrano. Every year, they leave South America and turn up by the hundreds at the historic mission, sending the Orange County city into a frenzy of celebration. It’s a tradition, after all.

But don’t talk tradition to the feathered squatters that have landed in Bill Woodworth’s neighborhood. It seems that a group of renegade swallows has decided to forgo the glitz of San Juan Capistrano for a quieter place: Moorpark.

About 50 birds are nesting in the eaves of tract houses on Clearcreek Court.

The swallows’ annual migration to Moorpark began about five years ago, and the number of birds nesting there has increased every year since.

By July, when the flock normally clears out, Woodworth anticipates that 300 swallows will have nested in quiet cul-de-sacs along the Arroyo Las Posas.

It is becoming more and more common to find swallow nests in locations other than San Juan Capistrano, game officials say.

Over the past decade, the swallow population has exploded because farmers in South America, facing international pressure, have stopped using heavy doses of pesticides that were killing the birds.

Because of the increased number of migrating birds, the tiny swallows have turned up in some unexpected locations.

For example, one flock has begun nesting in the May Co. store in Mission Viejo, and another group has shown up at Pepperdine University in Malibu.

Woodworth, who owns a medical equipment business in Moorpark, said he could hardly believe it when the birds began building their little mud nests in the eaves of his house.

“I said, ‘Swallows, here in Moorpark? No way,’ ” Woodworth said. “Now it’s become a part of my lifestyle.”

But not everyone who lives on Clearcreek Court likes the birds.

At the crack of dawn, the baby birds begin crying for food, making a racket loud enough to wake up the entire block. And, perhaps worst of all, the birds leave droppings all over the ground.

“They drive me crazy,” said Cindy Provinse, who lives two doors down from Woodworth. “We always have to clean off our cars.”

During the evening, said neighbor Mark Robbins, the swallows circle around the cul-de-sac, darkening the sky.

“It’s like Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds,’ ” Robbins said. “They’re everywhere.”

Provinse said that when she notices the birds making their nests on the side of her house, she knocks them down as quickly as possible. Under state law, it is permissible to destroy nests that have not been completed and don’t contain eggs. Otherwise, the tiny mud roosts must be left alone.

The birds showed up in the Moorpark neighborhood at the end of March, about the same time the swallows returned to San Juan Capistrano, where city officials declare “swallow week”--complete with a parade.

In Moorpark, the swallows started arriving a few at a time, building nests a dab at a time with mud from the nearby arroyo. Woodworth said that by summer, 50 to 80 little nests will line the eaves.

The birds usually pick the sunny west side of a house to set up shop, Woodworth said.

The baby swallows normally take to the sky in June.

“They’re really cute,” he said. “They’ve given me another way to enjoy my back yard.”