Den of Vipers

[Harry Pristis]

8 hours ago, HemiHunter said:

  This one here that my son caught a few weeks back has beautiful markings, but quite different from copperheads and the body is way slimmer.  By the way, this one spit up a brace of skillet fish it had been feeding on, which is an interesting part of their diet on Chesapeake Bay. 

 

A very striking color for a water snake!  Hunting in the Midwest and Florida, I've never encountered one with red.

[Al Dente]

15 hours ago, HemiHunter said:

Mistaking northern water snakes for copperheads is also common as both have somewhat similar banding and can be found in the same general areas.  There are many, many more water snakes around than copperheads. But they are not really that much alike when compared side-to-side.  This one here that my son caught a few weeks back has beautiful markings, but quite different from copperheads and the body is way slimmer.  By the way, this one spit up a brace of skillet fish it had been feeding on, which is an interesting part of their diet on Chesapeake Bay.  And, although not venomous, northern water snakes still can be nasty and aggressive when approached and can give you a painful bite filled with bacteria.  (I learned the hard way messing around with one decades ago when on an 8th grade field trip.  My teachers/chaperones were not amused...)

 

Nice color pattern on that Northern. Northern watersnakes near my house (Raleigh area in NC) have color patterns that are similar to copperheads but I think it is more to blend in with the piedmont red clays. Here’s an adult and juvenile that I regularly see while walking my dogs.

 

 

[HemiHunter]

3 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Nice color pattern on that Northern. Northern watersnakes near my house (Raleigh area in NC) have color patterns that are similar to copperheads but I think it is more to blend in with the piedmont red clays. Here’s an adult and juvenile that I regularly see while walking my dogs.

Wow!  I have never seen one like that here in the VA/MD area, and I have seen hundreds.  It is amazing that all these snakes can have such a range of color variation. Obscured by some brush or leaves in the woods, I totally could mistake your water snake for a copperhead.  That has got to be some evolutionary mimicry for protection from predators. And the juvenile looks to me just like a rat snake--another ornery critter around here that will readily bite you. Cool picture.