Pollinators and other cute bugs

Bees and other pollinators are essential to a good garden. I love watching the bees climbing in and out of the flowers in the morning.

Bees carry the pollen in Pollen Baskets on their hind legs.
The bee to the left has yellow pollen and the one to the right has collected a reddish-orange pollen.

Not a pollinator, but a friend to the garden, the lady bug or lady beetle, eats bad insects and keeps the garden healthy. And they are really cute!

 The beautiful dragonfly also eats bad insects and is very welcome in the garden. They only can fly when the sun is shining and only live in this form for this one season. They will die with the frost. 
But hopefully they found some water in which to lay their eggs. Dragonflies spend the first three years of their  lives in the water.

And everyone's favorite, the butterfly! This one is a Spicebush Swallowtail. I always plant extra parsley to attract the swallowtails to my garden, but I haven't seen any caterpillars yet. I don't mind losing a bit of parsley for something as beautiful as this.