Warning as crows steal stones from grave plots
PEOPLE attending a graveyard are being urged to put covers over their loved one’s plots as crows keep stealing items.
Mourners at Conwal Graveyard, outside Letterkenny in Co Donegal, initially thought thieves were to blame for the disappearance of expensive decorative stones.
After a number of complaints, local man Tommy Harkin decided to install a secret camera on one of the graves.
His footage shows the rooks landing on the graves, picking off the stones and swallowing them one by one.
Tommy said: “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.”
Birdwatch Ireland’s Niall Hatch said: “It’s unusual they would take so many of the same stones from graves but they are probably a particular type.
“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.
“They eventually spit the stones back out.”