I noticed this snake a couple times alongside a pond in NY state lands not far from me, and I thought it was a copperhead. I brought my camera and made this video. The best focus on its pattern is about :40. I have been informed that the snake is actually a northern water snake, and is often confused with copperheads— which have a pinker and more saddlelike pattern. I will keep looking.
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Thanks Phil.
Here in the boring old UK, all we have is grass snakes, adders and slow worms (a legless lizard). Still, doing the kitten thing again, I got to watch as their different instincts wire up – drop a belt or something ribbon-like on the floor, and they react like lion cubs, or other big cat babies in wildlife docs would to a snake! Two of this lot are lion cub color. Different shapes prompt different instincts. Your snake must have been basking after a meal – second loop looks quite large.
How many snake varieties are their in your part of the States?
Personally, I met copperheads, I do not recall snakes near ponds. However, is there any symbolism in this story? Copperheads, water snakes and a war of ideas?
Wow, an online vid without a 2 minute commercial! I watched it twice just because of that. Thanks.
Definitely a northern watersnake. Down south they are mostly confused with water moccasins. This time of year you are likely to see a number of them swimming in a parade within a few feet of a river or lake bank.
Not a friendly snake, like, say, corn snakes or rat snakes. While not poisonous or preemptively aggressive, N. watersnakes have a rep for being quite nasty if messed with. I’ve seen a lot of them in Virginia, but have never tried to shake hands with one.
There is a great web site run by Dr. David Steen where David and other snake experts resolve these What kind of snake is it? questions. He would be the best person to ask to get an expert’s view. No doubt he would appreciate seeing the vid. David’s site has a number of examples of N. watersnakes being confused with moccasins and copperheads.
http://www.livingalongsidewildlife.com/
Funny you should post this. I think we must be Hudson Valley neighbors.
I had one peacefully living by my house until this summer when some fool house guest claimed it attacked his dog and ‘he had to kill it’. When I looked up what it was I realized that it and the ‘Cooperheads’ some hicks had made a point of killing at swimming hole when I was kid were just harmless water snakes.