I have been looking at this picture

ilbruche said:
Both Rattlesnakes and Moccasins are from the family Viperidae. And the same sub family Crotalinae.

Rattlers are the genus Crotalus. Moccasins are Agkistrodon. So colorations and general appearance can be very similar.

Watersnakes will avoid you. Cottonmouths will hiss and get aggro.
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Maybe in Colorado watersnakes will avoid you. In my limited experience with them, they stand their ground. They don't take any sh*t.
 
doesn't look like a corrperhead or a watermoccasin to me...it's got a heavy body and the cavity of the eyes seems real large...but my experoience with southern snakes is limited.
 
Troop said:
Maybe in Colorado watersnakes will avoid you. In my limited experience with them, they stand their ground. They don't take any sh*t.
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I'm from Michigan originally. I don't know what Colorado has for watersnakes but in Michigan they usually took off when I saw them. But Michigan does have Massasagua, which is an ornery SOB. :eek:
 
the head looks too small to be a cotton mouth. did it have round pupils? and was the head broad?
 
Looks like a copperhead. I have had a cottonmouth try and come into the boat while crappie fishing one night with lanterns. I had to kill him after its 4th or 5th attempt to climb into the boat with us.
 
I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I think it is a patterned Chicken Snake (sometimes called a Rat snake). I had one that looked very similiar here in TN that lived many years, each year I would catch it and put in under my Barn. It would SMELL to high heaven and roll over and play dead when I tried to catch it.

Maybe?
 
ilbruche said:
I'm from Michigan originally. I don't know what Colorado has for watersnakes but in Michigan they usually took off when I saw them. But Michigan does have Massasagua, which is an ornery SOB. :eek:
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Mmmm...Massasagua. Correct me if I'm mistaken; but I think that word comes from the same Native American root-word meaning "Ex-Wife".:)
 
It is really hard to tell from this picture. There are a lot of details like pupils you can't see. I even downloaded the picture and tried to zoom in for a better view, but it is too blurry. Regardless, it is a cool picture.:D

Troop said:
Mmmm...Massasagua. Correct me if I'm mistaken; but I think that word comes from the same Native American root-word meaning "Ex-Wife".:)
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Your not mistaken! Your absolutely right!
 
I'm sure there are plenty of exwives there too....but I think he's refering to the massagua rattlesnake..it's a small but highly venemous rattly snake of the north east and lakes states....we have 'em in western NY but I've never seen em ny me only timbers and copperheads
 
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Side by side... whaddya think?
 
can't tell much but there's a LOT of snakes out there, the pitouphus sayii (bull snake) is often mistaken for all sorts of venomous snakes but it's really pretty easy to tell because the head doesn't have the right shape. might be worth checking out. It's a colubrid that gets 8 feet long, is fat bodied, and has a range of patterns mostly looking like copperheads and diamondbacks.
 
koyote said:
can't tell much but there's a LOT of snakes out there, the pitouphus sayii (bull snake) is often mistaken for all sorts of venomous snakes but it's really pretty easy to tell because the head doesn't have the right shape. might be worth checking out. It's a colubrid that gets 8 feet long, is fat bodied, and has a range of patterns mostly looking like copperheads and diamondbacks.
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Yeah....I think their tonsils are similar also. Get a little closer to make sure.
 
In TX water moccassin's range in colors and size and to me that is a water moccassin and they are very aggressive and will give chase if provoked, not a shy snake either,I watched one from a distance swimming in a lake and made a detour towards my joh boat and swam right up to the boat , a fishing pole poking at 'em trying to get him to swim away does not work by the time I freed my paddle he was in the boat.:D I was nervous but instead of wacking him to death with a paddle I just worked the paddle under his body and flicked him out of the boat...
 
runningboar said:
Cottonmouths are very aggressive and range in color from black to slate grey to light with fairly bright markings like the one in my pic. Those thick bodied, dark colored, aggressive snakes you saw in GA were, with out a doubt water moccasins. I was stationed at Ft Stewart for 4 years, the gators never have bothered me, well maybe a time or two :o, but the cottonmouths always made a bit edgy. Chris
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Chris, I would have immediately said Copperhead, due to the markings, but, then, looking at the other pics, I'm not sure. Not sure at all.

Where I grew up in Southern Maryland we had Watermoccasins, but they were black/Charcoal Gray. lived down at our "creek". And, yes, extremely thick for their length. They did have a nasty temperament, coiling, arching, acting all huffy, but I think that is part of their game, like playing chicken, and it works, we never mistook them for a standard black snake, as stories i've heard would suggest, they are fatter, meaner, and that head is unmistakable!

So, i would never have guessed Moccasin, since I've only seen the Black ones. But, being at the water's edge, and looking at other pics, it could be??
Maybe a juvenile? Doesn't look quite like those fatties we would see at our creek.
 
Chris,

Having grown up near your neck of the woods, I would have to say it's a Brown Watersnake Nerodia taxispilota

Not me, but a pic I grabbed.
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