I had time to kill this afternoon so I took my manual and 20D to a field next to the kid's dentist's office. It took awhile but I can now select the auto focus point manually. I shot these free hand but they're reasonably crisp. Trying to focus on the young owl in the shade yesterday was frustrating but I remembered reading about this AF Point Selection feature when I bought the camera. This, coupled w a tripod, will be formidable.. See pg 67 in the EOS 20D manual for details.

After fumbling my way to "AF Point Selection" I finally realized to turn off IS and AF and use the lens manual focus. The latter shots (Garden Orb Spider and beyond) are taken that way.