Spotting Any Swallows Is Mission Improbable

The swallows may have been hurried along this year into an early return, but tourists who flocked here Saturday hoping for a glimpse of the fabled birds had to be patient bird watchers if they wanted to spot one.

According to legend, the swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano on March 19, St. Joseph’s Day. But this year the traditional homecoming occurs on a weekday, so mission officials “extended” the tradition to include Saturday and Tuesday, when a second celebration is scheduled.

Swallows were hard to find Saturday, but not pigeons. Visitors eagerly paid 25 cents for about a tablespoon of bird food dispensed from a machine to feed flocks of pigeons that were scurrying on the mission grounds, eating from human hands.

“Why aren’t the swallows afraid of people, Mommy?” asked 4-year-old Tamar Nolte of Corona.

“Those are pigeons, honey,” answered Sheri Nolte. “We have to look for the swallows.”

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Mission spokesman Jim Graves acknowledged that the Saturday celebration was planned in part to accommodate about 12,000 visitors expected to visit the mission this weekend.

Until 1976 when the mission began celebrating the birds’ return only on March 19, the mission commonly held two-day celebrations when St. Joseph’s Day fell on a weekday, Graves said.

But no explanation was sufficient for angry traditionalists, who staged a candlelight vigil Friday evening to protest this year’s two-day celebration.

The 60 people who protested outside the 220-year-old mission wanted the mission bells, which are rung by tradition on St. Joseph’s Day when the first swallow is spotted, to be sounded only on Tuesday.

Mission officials rang the bells at 8:15 a.m. Saturday. The first birds, called scouts, were seen earlier in the week, but their arrival was not made official until the ringing of the bells Saturday.

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“We know that certain individuals are unhappy that we’re celebrating on both days, but I don’t think they know this used to be the practice before,” said Graves.

The swallows’ return from their 6,000-mile migratory trip to Argentina has been celebrated at the mission since 1910, when the tradition was begun by Father St. John O’Sullivan, who is known as the “great restorer of the mission.”

On Saturday, few visitors were aware of the controversy. Most said they took advantage of blue skies and sunny weather to visit the mission. They were entertained by mariachis, Aztec and Juaneno Indian dancers and craftsmen and feasted on ethnic dishes.

“This is one of my favorite places and towns in all of the Californias. I enjoy coming here every March to see the” swallows, said Marta Elena Yzaguirre, who was visiting from Tijuana with her family.

When modern-day swallows return to Capistrano, they come back to about 170 artificial nests made of ceramic. The real nests, which were made by the birds from mud, were torn down in 1989, when officials were required by state law to make the mission’s roof earthquake-proof.