Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!princeton!siemens!bugatti!tjo From: tjo@bugatti.siemens.com (Tom Ostrand) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: swallows return to Capistrano Message-ID: Date: 25 Mar 91 18:32:33 GMT References: <2217@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> Sender: news@siemens.siemens.com Lines: 25 andrewt@cluster.cs.su.oz.au (Andrew Taylor) writes: >I've just read that 2000 people were in Capistrano to greet the returning >swallows on March 19. Supposedly that have been late only once (in the 1930's). >I'm skeptical the majority arrive on a single date because the calender year >doesn't match the solar year precisely i.e some years the swallows should turn >up on the 18th (or 20th). >Do the majority of the swallows really arrive on March 19? >Why is there return date even close to precise - why don;t they wait >for favourable weather along the way? A few years ago I was in San Diego for a meeting in EARLY MARCH, and took a couple of days to drive up the southern Cal coast. Naturally I stopped at Capistrano, and there were plenty of swallows all over the place, swooping in and out of the mission. I tried to find someone who could tell me why they had arrived EARLY that year, but without success. I suppose they were the advance guard, and I just don't believe that they all arrive on the same day. Tom Ostrand E-mail: tjo@cadillac.siemens.com Siemens Corporate Research Phone: 609-734-6569 755 College Road East FAX: 609-734-6565 Princeton, NJ 08540-6668