Cheung Chau residents Lawrance Lau and Lawman Law became members of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS) twenty years ago. With Cheung Chau’s unique architecture of low-rise village houses and terraces, they have noticed a number of Barn Swallows nests in the neighbourhood. Being curious, they turned their interest into conducting surveys on these swallows.

There is a difference between bird and swallow watching: “We don’t use binoculars or zoom lenses; we don’t take notebooks.” As Barn Swallows nest in residential homes, the pair have once been mistaken as government officials while observing them on a neighbour’s roof. They have quickly learnt to watch swallows like private investigators, bringing only a pen and a pad of post-it notes to document their observations. The couple continued this self-initiated investigation in Cheung Chau for 17 years, making findings that show the impact from man-made environmental factors, like mosquito controls, on the fluctuation of swallow nests on the island. Since then, they have also joined HKBWS’s Swallow Research Group, with Lawman as the Convenor for the group now. Sadly, recent research by the group shows a year-to-year decline of Barn Swallows in Hong Kong’s urban areas, due to the population density and constant man-made environmental threats.