Working to Ensure the Swallows’ Return : * Laudable Campaign to Preserve San Juan Creek as a Bird Habitat Is a Cooperative Effort

San Juan Creek is far less celebrated as a returning site for swallows in San Juan Capistrano every March than the famous mission, located nearby in the downtown area.

Almost everybody has heard of the crowds gathered in hopes of seeing the homecoming of a fabled bird. But, in fact, says Monique Rea of the South Coast Audubon chapter, “if you really want to see swallows, come to the creek.”

Dozens of bird species actually live in a lush, four-acre area along the creek, but the swallows are there, too, and they really do come to the site. In a laudable campaign to preserve the area as a bird habitat, the Audubon chapter has been working there to restore the wilderness.

It is working with the city. And in a public-private partnership, a developer, TMC Development Inc., has agreed to do reed eradication in return for city approval for a 400-unit housing project. The Audubon Society is focusing on clearing work and overseeing rehabilitation of the area. In recent years, arundo nonax, a non-native reed that grows thickly, has engulfed the area and crowded out native plants, which are a food source for birds and animals.

The fine spirit of those working to preserve the area from the perils of growth has been contagious; residents and students who live and go to school in the neighborhood have helped Audubon members with the creek rehabilitation. Students from a nearby elementary school even drew signs to mark the area where a recent planting was done.

The result is a cooperative community effort to improve a wilderness area that is situated close to a developed neighborhood, and therefore accessible to residents and visitors. At a time of year when people in San Juan Capistrano and those just passing through naturally are thinking about the swallows, here is a meaningful program to preserve their habitat, and those of other birds, in the very same city.