Fly Away Home
Today the Violet-Green Swallows (Tachycineta thalassina) follow their migratory pattern and return to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, California.The swallows arrive each year on or around March 19, which is also St. Joseph's Day. Legend says that the birds took refuge at the Mission after an angry innkeeper destroyed their mud nests and they have returned there ever since.
These birds probably are not swallows, but Eddie Arning's folk art Birds charm us nonetheless.
Pictured: Eddie Arning, 1898–1993, Birds, 1969, crayon on paper, 21 7/8 x 31 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.
Today the Violet-Green Swallows (Tachycineta thalassina) follow their migratory pattern and return to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, California.The swallows arrive each year on or around March 19, which is also St. Joseph's Day. Legend says that the birds took refuge at the Mission after an angry innkeeper destroyed their mud nests and they have returned there ever since.