Bird photography constructive critism and advise required please

I am fairly new to bird photography.........to tell the truth I am not so keen as to want to use hides or go twitching.............I just want to make the best of opportunities as they arise:

This last few weeks I seem to have an understanding with an exceptionally friendly Robin that is quite willing to pose for ages less than a metre away from my lens:

I posted a reasonable shot of him last week...........but after taking advice from another keen bird photographer (Thanks Stan) I used his settings today...they were as follows:

s500 a5.6 and the ISO up to 1600 my camera is a new SONY A55 and the lens a TAMRON 70-300.............my advisor gets stunning results after using noise reduction software and then tiffling in Photoshop................he does use a very expensive top of the range lens:

One other point is that today was the dullest day ever no sunshine whatsoever and the cloud-base very low:

I will post another shot or two in this section so that you can see what I achieved:

All advice and help gratefully received:

hobbo

Title:	Bird photography constructive critism and advise required please
Username:	hobbo
Uploaded:	18 Feb 2011 - 8:55 PM
Camera:	Sony Alpha SLT-A55V
Lens:	Tamron 70-300 Check out Totally Tamron!
Recording media:	JPEG (digital)
Date Taken:	18 Feb 2011 - 2:48 PM
Tags:	Robin bird wildlife, Wildlife / nature
Votes:	2