This morning at 8.00am BST I noticed that my signal quality had fallen. My wife had seen a couple of squirrels collecting berries and nuts in the front garden. At about 9.30 am BST I went out to do a bit of shopping and noted that there were muddy pawprints on the dish. The dish is only a couple of feet from the ground. Closer inspection found mud on the LNB and support arm. Cable seemed intact and I wiped down everything and went on my way. On returning home I found the signal was even worse. Further inspection showed that the cable was partly pulled out of the LNB. The squirrels must be suspect and I had obviously made it worse when giving the dish a quick wipe down. Remaking the connection improved matters.
Wildlife can impact on our hobby! It reminded me of when I had a Garden Railway - Hedgehogs and Cats in tunnels, Ants along the rails, Wasp nests under the track, Frogs and Toads in retaining walls ( even found a Newt once) and worst of all were the Thrushes using the rail head to smash their snails - leaving a neat pile for my small scale locos to trip over.
Moral - beware squirrels collecting nuts in Fall (or any wildlife for that matter).
Glad I have nothing bigger than squirrels to contend with.