Cumulus Support

About a week ago I came home from work and it was raining pretty good I went inside and fired up my computer and started cumulus and noticed that it was not showing any rain rate so I waited till it stopped raining and went outside to investigate the problem and discovered that my rain gauge was clogged by bird droppings. So I now have it covered with a piece of screen that will still let any liquid in but keep the seeds and other hard items from the bird droppings out. i keep the screen in place by using a doughnut made from wood that is about 3 inches thick. I use this to help keep the rain from splashing out as my rain gauge is not very deep and discovered that hard rain fall would splash out. So now my rain gauge is about 4 inches deep
My only concern is the screen might get clogged up but so far so good. I have the wood covered with Black Jack to keep it from rotting
I have a Mocking bird that likes to land on it
I thought others might find this helpful