This plugin can make your life easier by grabbing an image URL out of a string. This is particularly useful for automatically generating feed thumbnails when combined with something that can manipulate images like CE Image.
{if '{exp:extract_image_url}{blog_body}{/exp:extract_image_url}' != ''}
<p>image found: {exp:extract_image_url}{blog_body}{/exp:extract_image_url}</p>
{/if}