Ere's one for you???

I have just been taking some shots of House Martin's nesting in my roof. I was using my 70-200L about 30metres away. The sky was bright so I decided to use a flash.
I found that the shots were very dark. My settings were as follows.
Also when I zoom in they are not very clear what do you reckon. www.flexiworld.co.uk/g​allery/hm1.JPG
File name
20060628_0221.CR2
Camera Model Name
Canon EOS 30D
Shooting Date/Time
28/06/2006 13:46:09
Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/250Sec.
Av(Aperture Value)
F6.3
Metering Modes
Partial metering
Exposure Compensation
0
ISO Speed
400
Lens
EF70-200mm f/4L USM
Focal Length
200.0 mm
Image size
3504 x 2336
Image Quality
RAW
Flash
On
White Balance
Auto
AF mode
AI focus AF
Picture Style
Standard
Parameters
Tone Curve : Standard
Sharpness level : -
Pattern Sharpness : -
Contrast : 0
Sharpness : 3
Color saturation : 0
Color tone : 0
Color matrix
-
Color Space
sRGB
File Size
8131 KB
Drive Mode
High-speed continuous shooting

Any suggestions please to improve my shots.

regards


Canon EOS 30D
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Mkii
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM
Canon Speedlite 550EX
Lumiquest SoftBox
Canon BG-E2 Grip
Canon RS-80N3 Remote
Canon IXUS 700
Manfrotto 055PROB with 141RC Head
Giotto Monopod
3 Sussex Spaniels

The lighter background will fool the meter & underexpose. You need to use exposure compensation or shoot on "M".
I wouldn't expect that the flash would have any effect at that distance unless you had a separate one & knew how to compensate to get a fill flash.

Maybe because "High-speed continuous shooting" can lose Auto Focus? Check your manual for the different AF modes.