I recommend setting your camera up for 'Back-Button Focus'. I set up my 40d like this a few years ago, and wonder why they don't come this way :)
You can focus, release back button(Which locks it in), recompose and shoot.
Also great for 'manual' focus, no need of reaching around and turning off auto focus on lens, just manually focus and shoot.
Metering; will depend on how you set it up and use it; In 'Manual' mode-metering never changes (From the exposure triangle you have set).
For the 'Auto' modes, here are a couple choices in your camera;
Your C.Fn“Shutter/AE lock button”, choices;
(Taken from... http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/backbutton_af_article.shtml)

A: Metering start / Meter + AF start
Back-button AF activation. Shutter button no longer activates AF, but of course fires the shutter. Metering is continuously updated — if you shoot a sequence of pictures, the camera takes a fresh meter reading for each one. There’s no locking of exposure, unless you separately press the AE Lock button (this last item is not possible on some EOS models).

B: AE Lock / Metering + AF start
Back-button AF activation. Difference between this setting and option 2 directly above is that when you press the shutter button half-way, your exposure is locked and won’t change until you pull your finger off the button entirely. Thus, if you shoot a sequence of pictures in any auto exposure mode, the exposure setting used for the first shot is used for each subsequent shot. Can be useful if you were using back-button AF to easily lock focus and shoot a series of portraits, where you wouldn’t expect lighting to change.

Just another option you might not have considered, Good luck !

As I understand it, you have reached the limits - of what your camera can do. There are no “settings” that can really fix this.
You can either expose the eagles heads properly or expose the ‘rest of the pic’ properly, but not both.
If you expose the Eagles heads properly, then the underexposed will become more underexposed, and conversely if you expose properly on the underexposed portion, the eagles heads will be more ‘over exposed’.
As Wahawk suggested this could be fixed with HDR…Other than that, you would need one heck of a flash to provide some “fill light”. :)

One more consideration if you are a Mac user. My system is just a year old and it does not support USB port 3. However, there is a firewire CF card reader that I found from Germany that ships by way of Canada. It is reasonably priced compared to those I found on various sites that are around 150.00. If anyone knows something I might have overlooked with faster card readers for Macs, I hope you will weigh in.

Possbly referring to this ?
http://fstoppers.com/gear-fw800-cardreader

Yes, the flash that connect to the camera are much more powerful than the built in flash…but the built in one is better than nothing (Most times).
Attached is an example I did for my nephew, who thought I was nuts for using a flash in bright daylight.
The first one I wanted to keep the color of the sky-but the wagon was too dark…..The 2nd I wanted to see the wagon-but the sky 'blew out'…The 3rd I turned on my flash, & got the wagon and the sky.
Hope this makes sense…Have a good time!

Exposed on sky


Exposed on Wagon


Used Flash in mid-day sun("Fill Flash")

Just got my first PocketWizard's, a MiniTT1 and FlexTT5. I am setting them up for use with a Canon 5D MK II - (1) 580EX II Flash & (1) 420 EX Flash.
I would like to exceed the 1/200th sync speed, and ran across this statement on the PocketWizard site; “You can also now disable HyperSync™ mode in the MiniTT1 and FlexTT5, allowing use of HSS for shutter speeds down to 1/320 second. This is especially useful for the Canon 5D and 5D MK II whose shutter mechanisms can’t take full advantage of the HyperSync mode.”

Any suggestions for settings? do you disable HyperSync mode?

Don't know if you have an external flash, but I have found that it really helps in bright daylight. You might find it most useful on the farm equipment, you'll be able to "save' the sky and not silhouette the subject.

I too am in this category, I'm leaning towards the
Minolta Auto Meter IV F, which has been recommended by others here, and can be had for a reasonable price on ebay.

Seems the more I learn the less I know.
As the investment $$$ in camera gear continues to climb, so does the need for 'Accurate' advice. Hoping to learn as much as possible and willing to share what I have learned.
Happy New Year!

Canon EOS 40D/5D MKII