Swallows Due in Capistrano

By Stephen M. Silverman

09/11/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

They're due back on Monday, but already a few of their number have already winged in. That would be the legendary swallows, returning to Mission San Juan Capistrano, Calif., where the sparrow-sized, white-breasted birds come back to the mission every year from their winter home in Goya, Argentina, around the time of the March 19 feast of St. Joseph. With their numbers diminishing in recent years due to over-development in the surrounding area around the mission, the swallows are being lured back by mission officials who have scattered ladybugs on rose bushes and made mud puddles worthy of nesting materials, reports the Associated Press.