Welcome back to Capistrano
L'Italo-Americano
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014
www.italoamericano.com
24
On March 19, hundreds and
hundreds of swallows will be
back to San Juan Capistrano
after
a trip of almost 6,000
miles. Yes, very punctually these
wonderful birds, on March 19
(Saint Joseph's Day) every year
come back punctually to their
old
nest, the very same nest that
they built the year before or for
some of them several years ago.
How do they recognize their
nests? How do they fly so many
miles, all the way from Goya,
Argentina
without getting lost?
Nobody was ever able to answer
these questions. It's truly a mys-
tery that such a tiny bird, 5-6"
long, with a brain not much big-
ger that a peanut has such a
memory
and such a tremendous
sense of direction.
When we, normal human
beings,
take a trip in our car,
even a relatively short 120-150
miles trip, we usually carry with
us 2-3 maps to identify the itin-
erary, the road that will take us
where
we planned to go. Not the
swallows, they don't need any
map, but they know exactly in
what direction to fly and where
to stop. Incidentally, we know
that
when they fly they keep
their beaks open to catch as
many insects, mosquito, small
flies, as they can to feed them-
selves and eventually, after their
arrival to San Juan Capistrano to
bring back to their nest to feed
their babies. Each swallow gen-
erally lays 5-6 eggs and have
just as many babies, which are
hungry all the time.
Another characteristic of this
bird is that it doesn't choose a
tree to build its nest as most
birds
do building their nest with
small sticks, leaves, straw and
sawdust, swallows' nest is solid-
ly
built and resembles a small
cement house. Swallows peck at
the soil collecting a small quanti-
ty of dirt in their beaks, then
using water they make a paste
that
enable them to build a mud
plaster nest or repair the last year
nest.
Some of the old Missions are:
San Antonio, San Gabriel, San
Luis,
San Francisco, San
Buenaventura, San Juan
Capistrano, Santa Barbara, San
Rafael.
Today, all these well-preserved
Missions are among the oldest
structures and the most visited
historic monuments in
California.
Californians are very proud of
them.
ToNY GhEzzo
