The world around us - or "corona times"

SARS-CoV-2 is tying us all to our homes and close surroundings. Outside, the birds are singing, bumblebees humming, narcissuses flowering, trees sprouting. And the weather! Argh! A strong and stable high pressure system hovers above Switzerland and is treating us with endless sunshine and a mild breeze. But - we stay at home. Most of the time at least. We go grocery shopping once or twice per week, go for a run every second day, do indoor climbing exercises at the fingerboard, and work from the sofa, the balcony, or the dinner table.. .
It is so sad to see spring in full swing without being able to fully enjoy it. Once we couldn't stand it anymore and sneaked out to the close Jura mountains to do an easy hike along the border of France. We walked beside and high above the Lac de Moron, a dammed lake of the river Doubs that lies deep between two 400 m rock faces. It is probably the most spectacular hike in the Jura - at least one of few paths that are marked weiss-rot-weiss. It was indeed more exciting than the usual Jura-walks.
We met perhaps three people along the way, from which we kept our distance, greatly enjoyed nature, and we felt very responsible with what we were doing and how we handled the situation. Until we read the news the next days: "German Swiss didn't get the message". "Stay home" is the appeal of the Federal Council. In the Jura hills, however, the police counted almost only German-Swiss number plates - to the displeasure of the local population, who showed themselves to be disciplined." Oh my.


So, now I am only walking around the quarter. I dug out my camera and the 400 mm lens, blew off the dust, and took pictures of an astonishing diversity of birds in and around our garden: House sparrows (many of them!), great tits (no picture of the blue ones yet), blackbirds, water striders (that's not a bird - but hell was it difficult to take a picture of them with the 400 mm ;)), feral pigeons (here on a roof admiring the super moon), common wood pigeon, rooks, the little blackcap guy that is always so melodically singing, another common wood pigeon, starlings, an Eurasian collared dove, and last but not least, the magpie couple that is nesting in the tree opposite our balcony.