Joezilla, others: snake ID?

fishshooter

fishshooter

Joined
Mar 29, 2006
Messages
1,466
Happened up on this guy today in the swamp. He was sunning on a little island. The body, head and markings look like an oak snake, but I've never seen one this color. Showed the picture to a couple of other guys and they're not sure either

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Looks like a copperhead to me...but doesn't have the "jaw".

You might be right that it's an oak snake (just googled it).

Where state are you located in?

Dan
 
Thanks fellas, that's what I figured. I see dozens of em around the house every year, but they always are this coloration.
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I'm not sure - the one in the first post looks larger in diameter with a quickly tapering tail (like a water moc). Whereas the one in this pic (and the rat snakes on the website I linked to) all look longer/skinnier/smaller.

Just a case of the first one having eaten already? I'm not so sure...

Dan
 
Looks just like him. We have a lot of banded water snakes around here. I thought the brown water snake was shorter and thicker. But that looks just like him. This one was as long as the oak snake in my other picture.
 
This is a beautiful snake. Looks like they dont hybernate at this time of the year in FL.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Yep on water snake- body proportion is too short and stocky for a rat and eye to tip of snout positioning is wrong.

I used to love catching and breeding snakes. Caught one fat northern water snake once by following the cries of a bullfrog. Snake caught him wrong and was struggling to turn him around so he could swallow him head on. That frog seemed really relieved when I set him free!!

That one likely dens in that tree and just comes out on sunny days. When I was a kid, we would catch water snakes and put them in the spring house- set down in the water in an old crock. Then take them out and impress the girls with our daring snake handling- snakes were cold and moving slow. I got nailed on the cheek one day and the girls were mightily impressed with my new found dancing ability!!

Bill
 
lmalterna said:
That one likely dens in that tree and just comes out on sunny days.

Bill
Click to expand...
He slithered into a hole at the base of the tree. I saw him again late yesterday afternoon. I've got a bush hook, for catfish, tied in that tree. Guess I should name him. It was unusually warm yesterday. Lots of turtles out sunning and I saw two alligators.
 
:) I envy you. I spent my youth split between a farm in the mountains of SW Virginia and my father birthplace-another farm down on the Eastern Piedmont in Virginia. At Dads old homeplce we had 2 5acre fishing ponds and miles of pulp wood land with a beaver swamp in it. I could roam and spend entire days catching critters- snakes, snapping turtles, fish, salamanders. Shoot .22's and bows as much as I wanted.

I do wish I could have raised my kids with more of that. I did expose them to as much outdoors as I had available & we bred/raised snakes and lizards since they had allergies to furbearing pets.

Kids have much less fear of the wild animals if they have more exposure to them.

Bill
 
Looks like the one I ran across out around the Lettuce Lake area in Tampa back in the summer. I thought it was just a banded water snake.

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