Here for the Early Bird Special?

Certified photo by Stan Rolfsrud.

A swallow at Mission San Juan Capistrano on February 11, 2016.
That's a time-worn mission wall in the background. 

Believers no more.
(We're not proud of what we've done.) 

Francisco has kept things tidy at Mission San Juan Capistrano for the past 11 years -- and he knows. Kathleen knows too. The swallows return to Capistrano on March 19 every year. Period. The famed cliff swallows know exactly when to come here. It’s historic fact. It is also a miracle. They use a divine calendar or something.
Doubting Stan arrived with his good wife at the mission today, armed with his myth-buster camera and a cynical attitude. Barely yards within the gate, he spotted his first target. Kathleen was not impressed, that couldn’t be a swallow, she said. Too early.

Later on, we interviewed Francisco. Yes, he knows what a swallow looks like. No, they won’t be here until March 19.
Aha! Stan whipped out his trusty myth-buster and presented the evidentiary photography. Try as he might, Francisco couldn’t keep a straight face. That was a swallow on the little screen alright, he admitted. First one he’s ever seen before March 19.
Must be climate change or something. El Nino? The Early Bird special?