"It's a last-ditch effort to lure back the cliff swallow, which put San Juan Capistrano on the map but has snubbed the mission in recent years. The mission has tried drawing them back with food. It has tried shelter. Now, it's trying seduction. The birds, with their orange-colored rumps and white foreheads, once arrived in such numbers that their swarms looked like storm clouds in the spring sky, a migration that inspired songs, paintings and a yearly parade. But urbanization and disruptions from a preservation effort at the church have chased them away, and the once familiar cliff swallow's mating cry is no longer heard. The noise now is from a speaker hooked to an iPod, tucked away in the bushes behind a statue of the mission's founder, Fray Junipero Serra. The recording of the swallow's mating call plays on a continuous loop, up to six hours a day five days a week." - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

"The swallows, according to legend, were welcomed to the mission by Father St. John O'Sullivan, the pastor from 1919 to 1933. In his book "Capistrano Nights," he wrote of an encounter with a man using a pole to knock their nests from the eaves of his shop. "Come on, swallows," the priest recalled saying, "I'll give you shelter. Come to the mission. There's room enough there for all." The birds would fly to Argentina each autumn and return in the spring. O'Sullivan noticed they tended to come back around St. Joseph's Day, March 19 — his birthday. Hundreds would flock together, forming a gray cluster of feathers overhead. The swallows drew media attention, spreading the story far beyond Capistrano. One broadcaster in the 1930s spoke of "skies blackened with swallows."" - John (bird whisperer)

"With visitors still asking about the birds, Lawrence-Adams decided to refocus the mission's efforts. But she said she wanted it to be "a sincere effort, not a cheesy effort." "We do need to have a place to respect their connection to the mission," she said. "This mission has been here 200 years, so it's OK to have some nests." That's when they turned to the expert: Charles Brown, a biologist at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, who has spent 30 years researching the cliff swallow. He's been enamored with birds since childhood — the purple martin in particular. He began studying the cliff swallow in college, an interest that would become a lifelong pursuit. He was especially taken by their social patterns. "They do everything as a group," he explained. Seeing them flock together, he added, was breathtaking. "I don't know of any other natural spectacle that's equal to it." Brown, who had ties to the mission after lecturing there in the past, acknowledged that his experiment is a long shot. "If the cliff swallows return, it's probably going to stay a marginal population," he said. "The landscape isn't suitable for them anymore. It will be a struggle to keep them there."" - John (bird whisperer)

I spent some time looking for Cliff Swallows during the last two weeks. The nesting site at one of the bridges where they've nested for the past few years appears to have been abandoned, unless the swallows are just late in returning this year. - John (bird whisperer)