According to folklore, the cliff swallows return annually to the famous Mission of San Juan Capistrano on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19.

The village of San Juan Capistrano celebrates their return with the Fiesta de las Golondrinas and the Swallow’s Day Parade. The event is world famous and attracts tourists from around the globe.

It’s only a minor embarrassment that the swallows have not been returning to the old mission since their mud nests were taken down in the 1990s during restoration of the 200-year-old mission. But then, it doesn’t dull the fun of the annual Viking Fest in Poulsbo that helmeted Viking warriors don’t come to plunder. Of course, many of their modern-day descendants have settled and raised families in Poulsbo.

The world-famous story of the miracle of the swallow’s return on St. Joseph’s Day was promoted by Father St. John O’Sullivan, who was pastor of the mission from 1910 to 1933. Newspapers picked up the charming story and its fame spread worldwide.

In 1939, songwriter Leon Rene wrote the song “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano,” and it was an instant hit. The ballad further enshrined the story of the mission and its swallows.

According to tradition, the swallows winter in Goya, Argentina, and travel 6,000 miles in four days, timing their arrival at the Mission of San Juan Capistrano on St. Joseph’s Day — which also just happened to be Father O’Sullivan’s birthday.

The city of San Juan Capistrano has enlisted ornithologists to lure the swallows back to the old mission, but urban development has so changed the area that it no longer provides suitable conditions for a sustainable colony of cliff swallows. Most cliff swallows now prefer to nest under bridges or in culverts near treeless open areas where insects flourish.

Like other swallows, cliff swallows sweep graceful arcs in the sky with mouths agape to scoop up insects in flight. Efforts to lure swallows to the mission have had limited success, including a few barn swallows and Northern rough-winged swallows. But rough-winged swallows don’t nest in colonies or make mud nests.

For most Capistrano festival-goers, the folklore has such charm and power that the absence of swallows seems almost irrelevant. The “Day of the Swallows” has become a celebration of Capistrano’s Old Spanish and Mexican cultural history and the beauty of the region. The old mission collapsed during the earthquake of 1812, but the symbolism of the swallows and their faithful return to the old mission each year has a timeless appeal that transcends fact and numbers.

— Gene Bullock is newsletter editor for the Kitsap Audubon Society. Contact him at genebullock@comcast.net.