4/19/2008

The Mission San Juan Capistrano is a beautiful place to spend a day. Founded in the same year as our country, 1776 it is the oldest building in California still in use today.

The Mission is also famous for the annual returning of the swallows.

Every spring Cliff Swallows make the 6,000-mile journey north from their winter homes near Goya, Argentina back to the Mission. The birds have made the trip to San Juan Capistrano every summer for centuries. The Mission's location near two rivers make it the ideal location to nest, and there was a constant supply of the insects on which they feed, and the young birds are well-protected inside the ruins of the old stone church