Sandaysoft

Hi All
I just noticed my rain graph and it has been registering a constant rainfall since midday but it stopped raining at 16:00,
at first I thought I had a malfunction with the transmitter then I checked the total rain so far and compared it with my
manual rain gauge; there was 5mm in that and about 4mm from the station.
It was then that I thought it could be blocked and just seeping through, I was right; a blackbird had used my newley modified rain gauge as a toilet!
I think I may have to attach some spikes to stop them percing on the rim of the funnel.
Any one else had this problem?

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Mark

Sorry, but I had to laugh when I read that

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Gerard



http://weather.gkt.net.au
Member of http://www.auweather.net/

Not a blockage problem, but Butcher Birds often "make use" of my Davis rain gauge... More of a problem is the spiders that keep producing webs in and outside it, sometimes enough to stop the buckets tipping when I get a light sprinkle of rain. These days I try to clean the webs out every week or 2.

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Loomberah Weather: http://gunagulla.com

I have the same problem but with Gulls.

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Steve
Sanday Weather
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Duct tape a few knitting needles to the body of the gauge

I solved the spider problem by glueing some pieces of mesh taken off an old flour sieve onto the "outlet" holes on the bottom of the gauge.

On things like cherry trees and ground plants like strawberries an effective deterrent is running monofilament(fishing line) over the bush or tree. I use it as well.

Good article here.

http://animalrangeextension.montana.edu/Articles/Wildlife/Repelling_birds_monofilament.htm

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Georgia Home Orchard

http://georgiahomeorchard.blogspot.com/

Strangely in the two years that I have had the WS, I have not had any spiders taking up residence; maybe that blackbird has been eating them

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Mark

Off topic - I have found fishing line also stops the Herons stealing fish from my pond.

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Neil
Hurstpierpoint Weather

It is amazing what one can learn on this site.
My OS rain guage lived about 3 years without a spider problem - it came with a screen over the drain holes.
Question about the 'spikes' solution: do the birds hover over the rain gauge, or do they usually just perch and squat?

Seriously, I had the same problem with my hot tub lid. A big plastic owl seems to have done the trick nicely. Rubber snakes also make a good deterrent.

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Art Thompson
Timberville, VA USA