Eastern Tailed-Blue

When I visited DGCA a few weeks ago, you could feel spring about to happen. My first Yellow-throated Warbler of the year had arrived. Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows were checking out potential nest sites. And there were lots of bugs to be seen. At one point I laid my backpack on the ground so that I could change lenses on my camera and inspect a nest of Eastern Tent Caterpillars. Almost immediately I noticed three or four little blue-gray butterflies flying about and landing on my backpack. They also had a couple orange spots on the trailing end of their wings, and one tiny tail on each wing. When I got back home I used my copy of Kaufman's Field Guide to Butterflies of North America to identify what I had photographed. At first I thought it was some kind of Hairstreak. None really matched, so I looked at the Blues next. The Eastern Tailed-Blue seemed to match my photograph perfectly.