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This is a sequence of images (heavily) cropped that I took at Dee Why beach yesterday... I know they are quite technically imperfect, (blown and not the sharpest)... but I thought I might as well post them I like the poses...

How are you meant to be able to spot meter on a moving subject!?

Nice Scott, as you said technically they aren't great, but they tell the story and capture the moment well. So what was the final outcome, did the first make off with all the bread ?

As far as I could tell

I generally dont spot meter on flying birds that are likely to be flying erratically,
I usually use centre weighed though, I generally find flying birds to be relatively small in the frame and tend to get better exposed shots.
In side by side tests with the d70 I found a tendency to underexpose birds
especially when the sky was bright,

Aperture priority will usually be the best bet expecially if the bird is flying across varying lighting positions.

I try to use fill flash also.

exposure compensation may be necessary also, depending on the colour of the birds.

Early morning light is usually the sweetest for bird photography with late arvo being the next best.
Around midday the light will be harsh.

Seagulls are a good source of practice for bird flight shots because they are common and used to man and often come around to steal chips etc.
Also, because they are bright white you can get a feel for what exposure compensation is necessary.
Steve

I usually position myself with the sun facing behind me and manually set the exposure and leave it as I've had too many instances of birds moving and the sensor not being position correctly so exposures differ between frames.

Darryl, I quite often do the same, but there are times where I want to get something that goes where I dont want it and then I have lost shots whilst I changed exposure.
those are the times I cop the difference in exposure.

steve

Go to beach

Spot meter bird

Set exposure

Throw pilchards

Wait

Wouldn't spot metering a white bird underexpose it (make it 18% gray)?

Cheers
Steffen.