While I have not had it stop working, I have had water get inside the lens. I did what castoff did, put it on a heating pad over night. Worked great. I have used that trick for other electronics and optics. It works well to get the water out…but not all things have survived.
Spotted this guy on the top of what I’m guessing was a 500’+ bluff. Just overlooking his domain.
The photo is grainy but that’s what you get when you have the 300mm maxed out and are bobbing around in the river.
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Here’s another from that same trip.
Found this one swimming in an area where the wall was too vertical for it to climb as tarantulas are not the best climbers. So I loaded it onto my paddle and transferred it to the front deck. Once I found a decent place to off load it I did a hand transfer as that was going to be much more gentle than trying to get it off the deck using my paddle w/ my deck bag and extra paddles all being in the way.
Unfortunately my point and shoot couldn’t comprehend that I would want to photograph that and focused on the ground instead. 
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Ewewe! I’m a bit arachnophobic.
Paris
I may have posted some of these photos in the past to this thread, I came across them today and thought I would in case I hadn’t. They are of Brown Water Snakes which love to hang above the water in overhanging branches. Dropping into the water when threatened or disturbed. These snakes have caused people to panic when falling into their boats. Yet they are harmless.
Carol moving a vine out of the way so we can go under this fallen tree across Cedar Creek, SC. The hat on the othe rside of the tree is Brant in his solo canoe. He didn’t see the snake when he went under it, so we also went under without the snake moving.
A happy couple!
One of my favorite shots.
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Aah, nice share. We have a similar snake that’s common in the water, but its smaller. The first time I saw one, I couldn’t recall what a copperhead looked like (reverse coloration I think). Once I put my foot in shallow water while canoeing to pick berries over hanging the water. After several moments, I saw movement in the water that was a copperhead within a few feet of my foot. Fortunately, it was dead and just moving from the wave action. Whadda jolt!
I avoid overhanging trees on the river because they often have tangled monofilament with hooks. You gave me one more reason to avoid them. As Harrison Ford says, I hate snakes :
Someone sent me this… Sorry I don’t know if you have to be on Instagram to view the video, so I am also including a screen capture.
Link to video:
Mark Smith on Instagram: “Have you ever seen an eagle catch a fish and then swallow it in mid air? Unbelievable!!”
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Yes. Awesome, and seen them drop it as well.
Above was a Bald Eagle. Here is how an Osprey does it:
Completely different way of catching fish. I saw one of these catching fish at our local lake here in Charlotte NC, but I can’t get pictures like this guy can.
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One time while fish sampling on Orange Lake, FL using an electro shocking rig while I was working in Fisheries at UF I watched a Bald Egale pluck a Chubsucker from the talons of an Osprey. I think this is one of their favorite ways of fishing. 
One of the ways we collected fish was with an electro-fishing rig mounted on an aluminum johnboat. One or two people on the front of the boat with long handle dip nets would dip the fish that would be stunned by the DC current between the copper wire electrodes that hung from booms extending out in front of the boat. There was a waist high railing to help keep you in the boat. Not all fish could be caught. Some would float stunned behind the boat but would recover quickly. The fish collected would be measured, weighted, stomach contents sampled, etc.
An Osprey saw this as a prime fishing opportunity and caught one of the fish floating behind us. We became aware of this as the Osprey passed us flying about 20’ off the water with the fish in its talons. To our surprise the next thing we saw fly by in hot pursuit of the Osprey was a Bald Egale. It easily overtook the Osprey with the fish. As it did so the Osprey turned upside down presenting the fish to the talons of the Egale that took it and flew off. The Osprey righted itself and kept flying away.
I was watching an Osprey last Sunday with camera at the ready, but never saw it dive. Belted Kingfishers are also great fun to watch, but really difficult for amateurs like me to time pictures correctly … they’re fast! I’m pretty good with turtles, however.
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That’s all I got
Great thread
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That is part of the reason I posted the to video clips… I wanted to revive this thread, which has always been one of my favorites.
Are we doing only photos taken “while on a paddling adventure”? Or is all wildlife fair game?
A “not so young” gopher snake w/ our kayaks nearby, . . . water, well that’s much farther away.
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I think that is fair game (pun intended.)
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