Hi Vixen, I have had a BB for a while now. I had a lot of disappointment with mine early on, I was trying to make it do all the work. I still dont have much luck getting great photos with it if the light is too low. I live in a valley with lots of trees, so even in the middle of the day, I am trying to shoot birds in the shade.
I get my best results if I use it for fill-light on the bird or butterfly etc rather than trying to light the whole scene. Ideally, I set the camera on 1/200th shutter, f8, and vary the iso to get the correct exposure ( or slightly underexposed ) for the background, then set the flash on anywhere from 1/16 to 1/4 to get some fill light on the subject. It has taken me a lot of practice to start getting some decent results , I now use it most of the time I go for a walkaround with the long lens.
One other thing is to make sure you have it aligned to your lens, if it is shooting a bit high or low, you wont get the most benefit from it. I shoot mine at a brick wall to make sure its aligned before I set off on my walk. Zoom your lens out to the shortest focal length and fire it at the wall, check the photo on the back screen, the flash should be lighting the centre of the frame, if it is, once you zoom out it will light the entire frame.