Some days you get lucky. I went out in the front yard to drink a coffee and smoke my pipe, as is my morning want. I heard a soft tchek, tchek, tchek coming from a large senna and spotted a tiny bird jumping about in search of bugs. I went in and got my camera, expecting the usual results -- it would be gone by the time I got back, but it was still there and gave me a nice pose. Black-throated gray warbler.
You can't imagine. The starting the day I sent it off, the lake and arb were flooded with our winter migrants and the 16-300 was just not up to the task. It is now on its way to hospital.
Stripped it down to parts, cleaned all optics and body, replaced the whole aperture mechanism, upgraded the firmware, recalibrated the focus and VR, and replaced the zoom and focus rubber grips and the collar knob -- it would probably have been cheaper to send me a new one!
Yes, focus just wasn't there, even on a tripod at 1/640 in good light, and some focus locking issues. I hope they can set it right, it's a great walk around lens and my main for my annual garden tour job.