What should I have done to make these better?

#'s 1 and 3 are exhibiting the interesting effect of foreshortening as a result of being taken with a very long lens (420mm and 640 mm equivalent focal lenths).

Only #2 has what is considered a "normal" appearance, and even that was 160 mm equivalent focal length, which is pretty long.

My personal opinion is that #2 is good composition for the situation. However, the use of the longer focal lengths for #'s 1 and 3 results in a rather "distorted" view of the scene. Such focal lengths have unquestioned validity in many nature shots where you are stalking birds and animals, but it looks a little freakish for this situation.