Ceriwis - First time with birds in flight

I have never tried to capture birds in flight before, but decided I would head down to the water and maybe give it a shot.
Some things I noticed was in 3D AF tracking the camera was being difficult with keeping the birds in focus. I set the camera up to single point, continuous focus, center weighted metering for the follow on shots to get them to work a bit better.
This ended up being easier to focus, but I found that with trying to focus on them and their flight paths, I often had them dead center of the frame, or leading out (which I know is not correct).
It was fun though and I've sure people probably enjoyed watching me whip around trying to keep these things in frame with their irregular flight paths <img src="http://thephotoforum.com/forum/images/smilies/lol.gif" border="0" alt="" title="LOL" smilieid="25" class="inlineimg" />
 
I used the 55-200mm VR lens for the shots BTW. I'm sure there is better glass, this is just all I had one me at the time.
 
 
1.
<img src="http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt266/Dominantly/bird3of1.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 
2.
<img src="http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt266/Dominantly/bird2of1.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 
3.
<img src="http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt266/Dominantly/20091126-DSC_0043-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 
4.
<img src="http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt266/Dominantly/20091126-DSC_0047-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 
5.
<img src="http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt266/Dominantly/20091126-DSC_0045-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 
6. His eye really popped
<img src="http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt266/Dominantly/20091126-DSC_0032-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 
7. Just for fun, this shows how that setup was able to distinguish between the background and bird.
<img src="http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt266/Dominantly/bird4of1.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 
C&C Welcome... Maybe some hints on technique.
&n