Flickers on Flickr

This flashy bird is the northern flicker, a large and fairly common woodpecker. They're almost as noisy as the stellar jays (which is saying something) so we hear their calls a block off when they're in the neighborhood. They are big, beautiful, and entertaining birds. But you need time and patience and lenses to take bird pictures like this one. The little digital I carry around for blog snaps just isn't going to cut it.

Now...a confession. Every blogger knows how easy it is to find and download images off the web, especially at the photo sharing sites. Flickr has beautiful and temping pictures of anything and everything you can imagine, anywhere in the world. But even though people (like me) upload their personal photos to this enormous open site, most bloggers know it is bad etiquette to snatch and use other people's images without permission. But what a digital candy store of temptation! And in the wild west of the Internet, ownership and enforcement is still being hashed out.

But with a little effort, even a lazy blogger can find sites for copyright free images. I just ran across Birdfreak.com where I found the above flicker, and many other copyright free bird photos. Not bad. While it always feels good to take the high moral road, check out Flickr to browse page after page of beautiful bird photos. And look, but don't touch. (ha ha)