BIRD MIGRATION HARD TO SWALLOW : DISGRUNTLED VENTURA COUNTY RESIDENTS DON'T SEE MESSY FLOCKS AS FEATHERED FRIENDS.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Chirping colonies of cliff swallows have flitted into Ventura County this month, transforming neighborhoods along creeks and rivers into San Juan Capistrano north.

Cliff swallows migrate up the Pacific Coast in February and March, and with development paving over many habitats, Ventura County's agricultural expanses, open spaces and natural waterways offer ideal breeding grounds.

After a decade of having his parsley and basil plants ruined by swallow droppings, Tony Carnevale found a way to discourage nest building on his Moorpark home - hang wife Laura's red blouses from the overhanging roof.

``We get quite a few here. They were taking advantage of me before I got smart,'' said Carnevale, who has raised a different red blouse the past five years on a makeshift pulley. ``We like them, as long as they go somewhere else.''

Gathering under bridges, freeway overpasses and building eaves, swallows are both welcomed and scorned.

Swallows are beneficial for pest control, scooping mosquitoes, gnats and other airborne insects in their beaks on the fly. Often massing in colonies of several hundred, the birds also can be messy neighbors.

Naturalist Tom Maxwell enjoys the company of swallows on spring and summer hikes he leads in the area, but swallows stopped nesting on his home 30 years ago and have never returned.

``I'd like to have swallows because of the bugs they eat,'' Maxwell said.

As a longtime leader of the Conejo Valley chapter of the National Audubon Society, Maxwell noted the irony of swallows flocking to homes other than his.

``I get so many calls on the Audubon phone line from people asking me how to keep the swallows from building on their houses,'' Maxwell said. ``I don't now why they don't stick to my house.''

While the townspeople of San Juan Capistrano welcome the annual return of swallows, which attracts tourists for festivities centered on a celebration of St. Joseph's Day, March 19, their annual return to Ventura County is largely unheralded.

Bill Scrivens didn't realize the home he moved his family into near the Arroyo Simi in Moorpark was a favorite swallow nesting perch. He used a hose to wash away two budding nests, then let the persistent birds complete a third nest.

``One day there were swallows all over the place. All of a sudden you heard this chirping,'' Scrivens recalled of their arrival some two weeks ago. ``Swallows or not, we like it here.''

Swallows are protected under the Migratory Bird Act, which biologist Paul Caron described as a ``don't break the eggs'' mandate for nesting swallows.

``You can almost figure within a week when they're going to arrive,'' said Caron, who has developed an affinity for swallows after years of helping Caltrans plan projects around them.

``They chirp and they're gregarious,'' Caron noted. ``Their colonies can get fairly large, and there seems to be some dependency between each other. Often they will spook at the same time.''

Once a nest is in place, it may not be removed until eggs have hatched and the birds have left. Nests should be left alone until swallows have flown south for the winter toward the end of September.

Dozens of orphan chicks likely will survive to fly south this winter thanks to rescues by the daughter and mother team of Molly and Maureen Vandewater. The Vandewaters are among some two dozen volunteers for the group Wildlife Care.

``We always have problems with people knocking down the nests,'' Molly Vandewater said. ``Instead of washing down the sidewalks, people wash down the nests with the babies in them.''

In spring and summer, the Vandewaters' garage becomes a homeless shelter of sorts for chicks, who are fed and nurtured and then placed inside nests in the wild.

Maureen Vandewater said rescue efforts are never-ending for swallows.

``It's a difficult bird to rehabilitate because they have to be fed usually every 20 minutes all day long until they're big enough to go,'' she explained. ``It's a lot of work, but it's worth it.''

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos

Photo: (1--color) A swallow nests under a bridge.

(2) Cl iff swallows migrate up the Pacific Coast in late February and March and seek refuge at prime nesting places like Mudstone Bridge in Malibu Creek Park.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

(3) A Moorpark homeowner hung a red blouse under the eaves to deter swallows.

(4--ran in CONEJO edition only) Tony Carnevale adjusts his wife's blouse hanging from the roof of his house.

Dusty Locke/Special to the Daily News

(5) Cliff swallows peer out at the world from their nests. The birds usually fly south in late September.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News