Bees and Buddies

First clue you have leaf cutters.. when it looks like cookie monster visited your roses..

 They like leaves with serrated edges it seems. I don't mind a few bites missing and the rose bush can handle some missing bits as it is overgrown anyways.

   One day I will identify this particular type of dragonfly. Yes, I am finicky like that.. just saying I have "blue and green" ones and "gold colored" ones is too vague and bothers me. I like knowing what they are, what they like, etc.

 Yellow jacket cleaning their face. Gourds have foiled my eradication attempts and the arrow shaped leaves just out of focus would be the ever evil bindweed. *Sigh* weeding is never ending. 

   Honeybee sticking her tongue out and getting some breakfast. Because the honeybees and tons of assorted pollinators are so wild about squash and gourd blooms I try to have at least one decent sized patch every year. Several dozen blooms each morning keeps a good sized cloud of them busy. Last year I had so many gourds that the bees would land and leave pollen prints everywhere. 

 Squash bees, Mason bees, Carpenter bees, Sweat bees, Leaf cutter bees, Honey bees, Wasp of several types... my yard has quite the assortment. Yeah, my garden would be more productive if I would focus more on growing things we need vs obsessing about the pollinators. However when we moved here in 2002 there were not so many pollinators and I saw very very few honeybees... mostly we had yellow jackets if anything. 
 My buzzing mass of bug buddies leave no flower untouched. It makes saving seeds a challenge but always good fruit set and more viable seed. If you have ever had poor fruit set or misshapen fruit on plants you nurture and tend to intensely... you don't take pollinators for granted. 
 The honeybees are after something in the vermicompost or the organic kelp fertilizer. Just something I noticed. They changed their favorite drinking spot after I used those on the container plants and now only the yellow jackets drink from the trays. It must offer some sort of nutrient they crave. If it keeps them coming to my yard... I will keep putting it out! I'm mesmerized by these honey bees as they are so docile.