Lindsey Gorham says she took measures to ensure the newly born great tits were kept safe in their makeshift home in Staple, between Canterbury and Sandwich.
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00:00Kent County Council is apologising after one of its workers killed eight birds which were
00:05nesting inside a letterbox.
00:08Lindsay Gorham found a nesting great tit alongside eight eggs by accident when looking for letters
00:14at her village farmyard in Staple near Canterbury.
00:17The 61-year-old says she quickly took measures to protect the birds by taping the letterbox
00:22shut and adding a sign to deter any posties from using it.
00:27When she discovered the hatchlings had died as a result of a council letter which she
00:31said had been forcibly delivered inside of the box, Lindsay was devastated.
00:36Absolutely so sad because the nest must have taken her weeks to make. It was absolutely
00:43beautiful, all moss, the nest was to one side and it's obvious from the letter that she'd
00:49been trying desperately to get it off of the babies so she could feed them which she couldn't
00:54do because she'd have to stand on the letter while trying to flick it over and she obviously
00:59gave up and left them and they died.
01:02The letter was a notice from KCC about drainage works taking place in Ripple, a village more
01:08than 10 miles away from where she lives in Staple.
01:12Lindsay's now calling for people to be more aware of nesting birds during the spring.
01:17Just have a look, stop and look and think ah, they've obviously written that on there
01:22and taped up their post flap to stop anything going in. The postman, he was good with it
01:30straight away and then the irony of it is when you look at the letter that killed these
01:35birds, it wasn't even for this area, it was for about 15 mile away. So that makes it even
01:43more sad that it needn't have gone in there at all.
01:46A spokesperson for the council says it's written to Lindsay to offer its sincere apologies
01:50for the incident and that it wants to assure Lindsay that this was a genuine mistake and
01:55that council staff had no intent of causing any harm in any way.
02:01So as it may not have been a happy ending for this family of birds, Lindsay hopes that
02:05with their story shared around, more can be protected in the future.
02:09Bartholomew Hall for KMTV.