On March 19, 1776, Spanish missionary Father Junípero Serra and his fellow priests founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in southern California, the seventh mission in a chain of 21 they were building along the coast. Just nine months before, they had to abandon an earlier attempt at the site when news arrived of a violent attack at another mission. When they returned, they discovered the church bells they'd buried for safekeeping were still in the ground, and they rang them again to start over.
The mission grew into a thriving community, with the largest church in California - the "Great Stone Church" - built between 1797 and 1806. Tragically, an earthquake in 1812 destroyed much of it. But what makes the mission truly legendary is the swallows. Every year for centuries, flocks of cliff swallows have flown about 6,000 miles from their wintering grounds in Argentina to return to Capistrano around March 19, the feast day of St. Joseph. They build little mud nests under the eaves of the old buildings, raise their babies, and fly south again in October.
The town built around the mission still throws a Swallows Day Parade every March, one of the largest non-motorized parades in America. The birds, sadly, have mostly stopped coming as the area got busier, though scientists are working to bring them back by playing recordings of swallow calls. The bells of San Juan Capistrano still ring on March 19, a 250-year-old tradition celebrating both the swallow's flight and the mission's long story - a place where stones, bells, and birds keep coming back, season after season.
