OT- ID This Serpant

[goose70]

I took the kids on a hike today at Calvert Cliffs and we saw plenty of these...

...Northern Water Snakes...most in piles, mating (yuck).

We also saw one larger, thicker snake away from the orgy that looked different than the Northerns. Here it is:


Is it a Brown? It looked to be about 5ft long and was very ill tempered when any Northern got close to it.

Thanks.

[blue lou]

At first I thought Eastern Rat Snke, but I'm thinking more Eastern Water Snake. Got fairly good after more than a few close encounters while shore fishing in Md, NJ and NoVa in the Spring.

[ashtonmj]

Looks like another northern water snake to me. Common brown snakes rarely get more than 12" long. No eastern rat snake in MD, only black rat snake. Maryland's Wildlife Species - All About Snakes in Maryland - Natural Heritage Program - Wildlife and Heritage Service See link for list of species found in the state.

[joemassi]

Looks like a northern water snake. Very aggressive if provoked. Not poisonous. They like to hang out in the rip rap. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. I ran across one today and all last week in Lake Mercer, NJ. As long as we left the snake alone, we did not have any problems. When some kid started to poke it with a stick, we had to pull him out of the way quickly.

[joe117]

A couple of years ago I was in that very same place doing the walk down to the beach and back.

My 11 year old nephew and I both saw a copperhead as we stepped right over it.

After we jumped about 10 feet we took a closer look. It was a copperhead all right and the reason it didn't bite was that it had a half swallowed mole in its mouth.

I agree that the snake in your pictures is a watersnake.

I hate snakes….all of them.

[swartj]

I hate snakes….all of them.

I am with you. It is irrational but I don't like them.

[capt.george]

--Goose , Finally Got ya --Need spell check Brandon"""

[27 sailfish]

Ain't yucky if you are a snake .

That is cool to see - great pictures.

[goose70]

--Goose , Finally Got ya --Need spell check Brandon"""

[goose70]

I was thinking Brown Water Snake, but I agree that it does look like some of the other Northerns, especially after I continued to look through my pics and found this:

You'll notice that about a quarter of the sticks in the beaver dam aren't actually sticks.


Joe, funny you mentioned Copperheads. They had a venomous snake warning for the park and two guys with expensive camera equipment who lead us to the water snakes said that they had just photographed a good size Copperhead down the trail.

We also saw plenty of these guys:

This was a baby, but some looked to be about a foot. Impressive lizard.