I first saw this butterfly on my butterfly bush, and for about the next 20 minutes I watched as it made its way from bloom to bloom. It then flew to a nearby red raspberry bush, landing on a leaf that was no more than 12" above the ground. It landed with raised wings, but within a minute had slowly lowered them. About 3 minutes after that, the butterfly began raising its wings again, then soon shifted position as if preparing for flight. After approximately 7 minutes on the leaf, it flew away and I was unable to follow. (I observed this species on my butterfly bush again the next day (9/10/12), but have not seen it since.)

I'm quite the amateur when it comes to photographing and attempting to identify insects and arachnids (started 2 months ago and am hooked!), but after using resources from this site and www.discoverlife.org, I'm hopeful that this beautiful butterfly is a Long-tailed Skipper.