Found this guy dead in the road not far from a lake. I'm saying it's a banded water snake. My neighbor said it is a Copperhead. Any help is appreciated.
All the water snakes in my lake have in past been gray but ones looking like that have just shown up this year and I saw 6 at one time the other day . Don’t know where they come from .
Hard to say from the picture, it is zoomed in. We are guessing 3'+ easy. If you look in the upper left of the picture, the brown "square" is the bottom of a Forest Service Trail sign post. 4x4? Might give a better perspective. There is a twig/branch about 11:00 in the photo, not hard to imagine it being almost a foot long, as twigs often grow be.
That's the big sign our middle school-age son walked up to "finish" the hike, and nearly stepped on the lethargic copperhead stretched out in what sun he could find. Slowly eased back, after asking "Mom, is this what I think it is?" Yep. Ol' Copperhead eased on his way, no harm no foul. It's an 18-mile drive up the mountain on twisty dirt road, and even farther to the nearest medical center once you get back down.
Our crew is fairly snake aware/friendly but accidents do happen, glad the Lord provided for us on that day. A beautiful but deadly reptile.
It is a common water snake, neither a copperhead nor a banded water snake...I was wrong as well, thought it was the king snake at first...Southeast Reptile Rescue herpetologist identified it...
Although a common name for the common is banded...
Common names for Nerodia sipedon include banded water snake, black water adder, black water snake, brown water snake, common water snake, common northern water snake, eastern water snake, North American water snake, northern banded water snake, northern water snake, spotted water snake, streaked snake, water pilot, and water snake