Pigeons will help a fair amount. Starlings can be tough targets. They can be harder than doves even... just depends how spooked they get when you stand up to shoot.

Woodcock and ducks (from a shooting standpoint) don't have a heck of a lot in common. Shooting quail or woodcock is often just about hand-eye coordination. Shooting ducks is about realizing how fast they are really going and in what direction. Geese even more so... you wouldn't think that a goose is flying as fast as a mallard duck is... but thats because he is so big... you have to focus HARD on the BEAK of the bird.. THE LEADING EDGE! You have to mount your gun properly and keep it moving! If you stop to calculate your lead... then you've stopped and you'll miss behind your target.

Here is a general rule that might help you... it works for skeet (the actual shooting sport of Skeet on an International field... 8 stations, high house low house): for every ten yards you increase your distance, you need to increase your lead by a foot... the way you rationalize this is by increasing you lead AT THE BARREL one inch. For example, go out in the back yard and place 5 soda cans in a line exactly one foot apart from each other... now, walk back ten yards and hold your finger (or the gun if you are in a rural area) up and point at the second can from the left... the can to its left should appear to be about an inch to the left of your shotgun bead... if a target was at ten yards... thats what the proper lead would/should look like. Now go back to twenty and hold on the center can... you'll notice you've got two inches to either can on the end from your bead... thats what your lead should look like at 20 yards... of course, one inch at the barrel equals about one foot at the target 20 yards away.

Hopefully you understand where I'm coming from... thats how I've taught new shooters, and they have always said that its that little lesson with the cans or clays that really gets them to start hitting consistantly... I know it helped me too way back when I started.