Trumpeter swans swimming on the Mississippi River in front of our house. These almost extinct birds several years ago have made a significant return and now up to 1,000 of these large birds spend their winter in Monticello. They usually come the end of November and leave in early March. Part of the reason they come here is due to the river being open from the warm water outfall from both the Excel Nuclear Plant and Power Plant up river. However, the winter of 2006-07 has many parts of the river frozen due to low levels and the Nuclear Plant has been down for the past week.