Neat catch Ken! I like the action, but the photo needs a bit of improvement. It seems underexposed. The wings on the bird are a bit too blurred for me. You said to be tough! I think filling the frame with the bird more would help, and slightly lower angle!
Your shutter speed is too long. You need to get your shutter speed up. I would have shot at ISO 400 or more. You would have gotten a better shutter speed. I think the 70-300VR is fine at f/8 - - that would have gained you a tad of speed as well.
Framing is fine - but the shot needs sharpness. It's a neat capture.
I agree with all of the other comments, try to bring the shutter speeds up. I like to be over 350 for that focal length when shooting moving objects and preferably 1/500 or faster if the light/iso will allow. And f/8 would have given some more leeway that way.
On my Nikon cams I have found that in low light/low contrast situations that they under expose any where from .03-.07 stops. Play with the exposure compensation and look at the histograms to help with this. Oppositely I find that in bright light/high contrast situations they over expose to the same amount.
You didn't say how you were shooting these but I have had good luck with aperture priority and setting auto iso to a minimum desired shutter speed and working from there.
I think filling the frame with the bird more would help, and slightly lower angle!