From the Home Section of the Washington Post.  They report nesting Cliff Swallows on the White House Collonade (joins the West Wing with the Mansion on the South side of the house overlooking the Rose Garden).  There is a picture of the nest in the paper, but I can't ID on the nestlings -- but maybe some of you can if you look at the nest.  Is it Cliff or Barn Swallows?  I had no luck in the on-line photo galleries, so you have to look at the paper in hard copy.

Denise Ryan  -- it never hurts to check the Metro Animal section for possible reports of nesting birds for the Atlas.  You just don't know what you'll find.
Cheverly, MD

 
 Friends in High Places
 
  Like a lot of vacationers, George and Laura Bush are having a little work done on the house while they're away this summer.
 
 While the first family kicks back in Crawford, the Reagan-era walnut and oak floor in the Oval Office is being ripped out and replaced because frequent refinishing of the high-traffic space had worn it down to a thin veneer. According to Susan Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary, everything in the room will be put back where it was. "Hopefully the president will walk right back into the Oval Office and not notice much of a difference, except that the floors are thicker," she said.
 
 Other August White House projects include restoration of the masonry and stucco in the West Colonnade, which leads from the main residence to the West Wing. But before the president left for his ranch, he asked whether the work would disturb the mother cliff swallow and her three babies who have made a home at the top of one of the columns.
 
 "He wanted to make sure the birds would still be there when he got back," says Whitson. To protect the little family, White House carpenters built a box around the mud-and-sticks nest on a column that will remain untouched until the birds are big enough to fly away.
 
 Jura Koncius
 
 
 Would you like to send this article to a friend? Go to 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/emailafriend?contentId=AR2005081700526&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle