Well, stone the crows!

Birds behind grave thefts

MOURNERS at a graveyard in Co. Donegal are being advised to put covers over their loved-one’s grave as rooks keep stealing from their final resting places.

Upset mourners at Conwal Graveyard outside Letterkenny initially thought thieves were to blame for the theft of expensive decorative stones.

After a number of complaints, one man installed a secret camera on one of the graves.

Tommy Harkin posted the footage of the grave-robbers after discovering rooks were the thieves. It shows the birds landing on the graves and picking off the stones and swallowing them one-by-one.

Dozens of the birds are targeting graves and completely cleaning them of the stones.

Mr Harkin said mourners were very concerned after discovering the graves of their loved ones had apparently been invaded.

‘I know this is causing a lot of heartache to families. Perhaps people should consider putting netting over their graves as the stones can be up to €50 a bag,’ he said.

Niall Hatch, of Birdwatch Ireland, said such incidents are very rare.

However, he said there is an explanation for it. He revealed the birds, especially rooks, use stones to break up their food.

‘It’s unusual that they would take so many of the same stones from graves but they are probably a particular type of stone,’ he said.

‘Birds don’t have teeth so they swallow stones and they are stored in an organ called a gizzard in which the food is then cut up.

‘After a while, the birds eventually spit the stones back out.’