When I woke up yesterday and looked out of my hotel window at Jelai Resort in Fraser’s Hill, this was the scene below in the mist – people, and birds .

There must have about 60 people and almost as many cameras and tripods and telescopes and binoculars…

There is something very odd about Jelai in the morning. In that first hour or two in the morning, the birds come out and feed on the carpark edge, fly past your nose, hop around your feet. Why this particular place and not everywhere else is a mystery.

And of course, during the birdrace, the bird race participants are there to see them.

The best part of the race as far as I was concerned was to see so many of my old friends (and make new ones – hi, guys!). Birders I hadn’t seen for ages seem to come out of their retirement to attend, although not usually to take part, from as far away as Singapore and Langkawi. It was great to see them. And odd to find just how many people read my blog…

The winners saw just short of 100 species in 24 hours.

Birds at Jelai yesterday morning: Verditer Flycatcher, White-throated Fantail, Lesser Raquet-tailed Drongo; Chestnut-capped and Chestnut-Crowned Laughingthrush; Orange-bellied Leafbird; Black-throated Sunbird; Long-tailed Sibia; Mountain Fulvetta; Silver-eared Mesia; Yellow-naped woodpecker; Malaysian(Javan) Cuckoo-shrike; Streaked Spiderhunter; Long-billed Partridge heard calling; Little Cuckoo-dove; Large Niltava; Oriental Magpie-Robin. All seen and identified without a pair of binoculars, because I left mine back in Kota Kinabalu by mistake! I’m sure there were others as well.