Here's what I found this morning in our yard, killed by one of our cats. Don't know if it's a ground snake or a baby copperhead.
Unwanted garden visitor
Hard to tell from the pic, looks like it is not a copperhead. If the eyes are "cat eyes" with slits instead of round it is a copperhead (all of our native pit vipers have slit eyes)
Can you post a photo of the head and the vent (where it goes poo ) The arrangement of the scales will tell you if it is venomous or not.
Lorie "I teach about Snakes to the Scouts" McGraw
Columbia
Are you kidding? I don't do snakes! DH put it on the fence. It was a miracle I didn't scream when I saw it, but to tell the truth, it was lying on its back and I saw the light-colored underside and thought it was a large worm, bent down to look more closely and realized what it was. Thank goodness it was dead. I hate snakes.
I can say this: it did not have the V-shaped head that copperheads have, but is that something that develops later? We've killed 2 copperheads in or near our yard in the past and this fence is located near a small section of wooded area.
Thanks, Lorie, but I don't like snakes!
I don't think it's a copperhead either (just for your peace of mind.) Baby copperheads still look like copperheads. I almost stepped on one in the backyard and did a cartoon stumble as I stopped trying to walk mid stride.
Below is a nice page for snake id. It's geared towards SC, but it will probably work in NC, too.
http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/scsnake.htm
I was cleaning out my chicken coop this morning and my annual rat snake nemesis has already moved into my pump house (next to the coop.) Icccccccccckkkk. I hate the fact rat snakes climb so well. That FREAKS ME OUT. My husband thought it was funny to hang a skin in the pump house from last years resident- it's at least 6' long. My husband defended the yellow rat snake monster all last summer, until he found it in the coop wrapped around my favorite hen!!!! Boy, was I glad he put the chickens to bed that night.
Thanks, Bordersandjacks and Pyromamma, for your advice. It didn't have the bright sulphur tail that the web page speaks of in juvenile copperheads, so I guess it's some kind of ground snake. Yuk!
I have done the Cartoon Stumble more than once. I love snakes and am very comfortable around them, but that primeval reflex reaction kicks in when you are startled by one! I found out that you can actually levitate!
Pyro: I think I did that many years ago when DH and I were hiking in the mountains. I was in front of him and we were approaching a little stream at the bottom of a hill. There was a (dead, thank goodness) rattler in the stream and DH said my feet didn't touch the ground until I was all the way up the other side of the mountain (screaming the whole time, let me tell you!) That was the end of my hike that day, too.
No snakes!
My cats caught 3 of these little guys a month or so ago. I don't remember the name of the snake, but they are harmless.