The "Things that went wrong"-Story of the Month

Everybody working in the field sometimes has this feeling that things are going wrong more often than not, that both the equipment and nature are conspiring to keep you from getting results. However, these "things that went wrong" are rarely published, despite the fact that there might be a lot to learn from these stories.

So, this is the place to share "things that went wrong"!

If you have a story to tell (with hindsight they are sometimes even funny!), just start writing down below.

The "Things that went wrong"-Story of the Month March

Start writing here!

Birds and Raingauges

What we thought:

Let's set up raingauges in our experimental basin where we need them for hydrological reasons.

What really happened (1):

The birds of fields and meadows misunderstood our raingauges for toilet bowls, and their excrements blocked the intake of the tipping buckets resulting in loss of data.

What really happened (2):

Both stations in the neighbourhood (less than 2 km away) recorded some precipitation events. The one in between just collected water in the inflow funnel and spit it over the observer when he was opening the cover.

Lessons learned:

1. Birds do not sit on very thin cords, and during sitting they hate to be bending down. So we stretched a thin cord a few centimetres above the edge of the raingauge.

2. Always have a look into the pot before opening the cover :-)