The cherry blossom, or Sakura, is heralding the arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere …

Photos from caterina.appia, Jennifer 真泥佛, *Sakura*, dpf1089, and moaan.

Photos from Erasmus T, SchonaKesslerPhotography, ►CubaGallery, .I Travel East., and house on hill road.

Most people live far away from greyhound racetracks and may have only seen a race broadcasted on TV or the web. With that in mind, Rachelhogue put together her set Life at a Greyhound Track – Behind the Scenes to document the events at the track near her home. She wants to gives the majestic greyhounds more publicity, show things as accurately as possible, and help them being adopted to loving homes when they retire.

Enjoy more photos in Rachel’s set Life at a Greyhound Track – Behind the Scenes or discover other photos of those friendly quadrupeds with a tag search for greyhound.

We know that there are many amazing things going on in the Flickrverse every day. You have tips to share that help others improve their photography, create fantastic apps with the API, build DIY gear, organize amazing photowalks and events, and share adventures from around the world. Simply put, there is a lot going on that deserves to be featured on FlickrBlog or tweeted to everyone following @flickr.

If you want to share a story about a unique photography project you’re working on, how Flickr has changed your life, helped you find new friends (or partners), become a better photographer, or moments of serendipity, let us know through the new help page contact form. We’re excited to hear about it!

Photo from *Cinnamon.

Fire fighters, the local heros that protect us day by day. Explore many more fire fighter photos in our tag search.

Photos from j_jyarbrough, Amicus Telemarkorum, SophieRybalov (oldthoughtsleave), Matthew Rice., aheatwole, and kenney_r1.

Photos from sporkist, robertjosiah, Janet Leadbeater, swissmiss, and brooklyn. Inspired by Astrid.‘s gallery hunting the light II.

To find out more about galleries and how you can create your own, check out the Gallery FAQs.

Every year in autumn and winter, amazing Starling formations can be seen in parts of Europe including South England, Denmark and France. During the cold months, the birds become highly gregarious and turn into huge flocks of highly variable size.

Hundreds of thousands of birds can be part of the flocks. They form tight sphere-like formations in flight, frequently changing their shape providing stunning sights.

Photos from Alan-Mackenzie, JimD36, danny beath, BSc, PhD., GrahamMcPherson, Gregory Hunt, Fiona in Eden, Mark Eastment, Mike Hannon, and Andy Holden.

Meeting other Flickr members in the real world has always been an integral part of the Flickr community with its many groups and circles of Flickr buddies.

We want to make it easy for you to meet each other all around the world! That’s why we want to give you an improved tool to plan your Flickr events. Photowalks, exhibitions, get-togethers and all your other awesome activities can now be organized and announced over on our Flickr page at Meetup.com.

In the past few weeks, after our sneak-peak announcement, we’ve already got more than 228 FlickrMeets organized around the world and there are lots more to come! If you need a hand, we have created an FAQ that will guide you through finding and creating your first FlickrMeet.

If you have any questions or want to let us know about all the amazing things you are planning, drop us a line at flickrmeetup{at}flickr{dot}com.

PS: After all the hanging out and fun, everyone loves to see photos, so don’t forget to come up with a unique tag for your event and share them to your Flickr group. If you’re on Twitter, you can even spread the word further by posting your tweets with #FlickrMeetup.

Massive solar storms, as clearly visible on the NASA Goddard Photo and Video‘s photo on the left, are sparking intense Northern Lights displays for skywatchers at high latitudes since yesterday. They are reported to be visible again tonight, as a wave of charged particles reaches Earth. You can find even more photos in our Aurora Borealis search with more pictures from last night.

And if you like space things… the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition just opened the group for your entries.

Photos from olgeir, Nigel Fearon, *Jonina*, IGORA90, secondaryreality, Antti N, Ryan Liem-Salim, and NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

It’s International Women’s Day today. This one is for all the fantastic women out there!

Photos from Alireza Teimoury, hannes.trapp, Rowena Waack, Eric Lafforgue, Tiagø Ribeiro, Paul Gosney, jwlphotography, HORIZON, Dan. D., Okano Yasushi, AnnuskA – AnnA Theodora, momoyama, and Julia Dávila Lampe [CHAULAFANITA].