Sandwell Valley - I think I'm improving

I had a better day down at Sandwell Valley Country Park this morning (before the rain, which started at 10:30)

there are lot's of factors to take into account Lawrence, and looks like you are learning them. Whilst you got yourself a nice collection of birds, you camera doesn't handle iso1600 well, and the images are very noisy. You have also used a small aperture, and as you said, the shutter speed has to go down. Most birders like a nice clean background, which is achieved with a shallow dof, so a balance is needed there.I don't think you need to be shooting at f10's etc, as you just stop out too much light. It would be more preferable to shoot at say f7.1, and have a lower iso, and hopefully up the speed too. Another thing is to watch your backgrounds. Look for clean backgrounds, the further away the background is from a bird, the more chance of a nice bokeh as well. So in a nutshell, clean backgrounds if possible, shallower dof, lower iso, faster shutter speeds, and you should get nice results. Lol, birding isn't easy! but a lot of fun!

Went back to the same spot this morning to have another go - I think I'm still improving - next step is to get a better image in the camera to reduce the PP.

Tina is right, I always start at f/8, iso 200 adjust from there. DOF does not affect focus, kinda, it will limit your depth of focus, (which what dof really is) but even of you were wide open, you should have some portion of every shot in focus, just a shorter depth of focus, (or field if you prefer). Also that high of iso creates that noise,it looks like you used some sort of noise reducer which will greatly affect focus detail. Lets see some more!

You got some good pictures here. I'm learning too, it seems I forgot a lot these concepts when I'm actually shooting and caught up in moment of trying to get a shot before the birds fly away. I like the ducks swimming towards you. They look like a group of battleships.

Your second series shows big improvement, Keep on shooting, practice makes perfect

your t2i will produce stunning images.
keep looking on here.
when I first started I checked the EXIF info for every picture I liked.
I started to see lots of high shutter speeds combined with F7.1 or f8 aperture.
your camera should handle 1600 ISO just fine so check your settings for that.

are you cropping your pictures pretty heavily? that will show noise that wouldnt normally show up.
your subjects are nice, you definitely will get there soon with just a few tips.
keep shooting!