Looks like a young northern water snake..non-venomous.

Thank you, Dottie. I googled it and I think you are right. When I read water snake, venom was the first thing that went through my head, so thanks for adding "non-venomous"!

Isn't it amazing that it can climb a vertical wall!

It was cold this morning (at least in my area) and I'm sure snakes are attracted to heat sinks like brick.

It's a young black rat snake. It will loose it's pattern as it gets larger and turn black. I wish I had more around to help control the voles.

Hosta200, I googled black rat snake and the first photo that popped up looked exactly like the snake in yard. I think that must be what it is. I wish I knew more about snakes.
I sent the photo to my sister and she thought it was a copperhead! Lucky for me, I'm pretty sure she is wrong.

My husband found three young black snakes in the driveway this week and gently placed them back in the woods. We appreciate our black snakes...have only had ONE plant (that I know of) eaten by voles. The black snakes have also kept the chipmunk crowd under control. Now, if they would just work on the squirrels...!!

I know - we like to keep our snakes, too, and we're careful to try to get the right identification. When we first moved to this house, a huge snake crossed our driveway and our neighbor told us it was a copperhead, so we killed it. Later I sent a photo to a professor at Davidson and he wrote back to tell us it was a King snake and very beneficial. I've regretted that snake ever since (and we don't rely on our neighbor knowing anything about snakes!).

Seconding Hosta200 the snake is defintely a juvenile Black Rat Snake.

Juvenile snakes can be especially tricky to identify because some, including the juvenile black rat snake, do not have the same pattern as adults.

Great picture by the way!

I am a degreed Zoologist and I also agree that snake is a juvenile Black Rat Snake. Here is a great website to use to ID snakes here in NC.

http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/snakes/snakes.html

Thanks Tomatomike, that is a great site. I need to learn to identify snakes. I still see too much resemblance between a copperhead and a kingsnake. I'm afraid I'd be killing the kingsnake again if I saw one. Is there any way to definitively distinguish the two, or is it just experience in recognizing them?

A copperhead looks like one even as a baby. There is never any white on one, they only are a little brighter when young. The triangle head and pits on the sides of the head are give aways, if you feel like getting that close..With few exceptions, if the head is tapered to the body it is non-poisonous unless it is a coral snake, a doubtful find. That doesn't mean they don't have a 'tude. I never met a Black Rat snake that was friendly. My daughter and her husband have three snakes and three cats. I personally am terrified of snakes from the imprinting on my brain as a kid, but I cope.

also, really young copper heads have a very distinctive greenish yellow tail. I don't know that anything else has that. I guess it's a mimic of a rattler?

tomatomike has got the diagnosis, triangular heads, pits, and slitted pupils id the venomous snakes except the coral snake. Anything else is non-venomous. If there's any snake that you'll confuse for a copperhead it would be the corn snake which has even more coppery coloring than a copperhead, but it lacks the other distinguishing characteristics above.

But-- you should know that certain snakes can add air into their cheeks to make their heads look more triangular. Just as certain ones can mimic a rattling sound to scare off predators. Really study a live copperhead (like at the science museum) and you won't mistake another snake for it again. The patterning, face/head and color really is quite distinctive.

Copperheads have hershey kiss or dumbbell shaped markings.

Many people seem to think any snake with blotches, markings, or bands is a copperhead..but the hershey kisses of a copperhead are very distinctive.

Thank you to everyone for the good information and Tamelask, visiting a nature museum is a great idea and I think I will do that.
Wayne, thanks for your info. I looked at your personal page and that is really quite impressive. Do you do anything besides see the snakes? Do you catalog them? Is that part of your job?

Wilson, if you get to raleigh, the science museum is free and has copperheads as well as water moccs and some other snakes on display, live. It's a really good way to learn to ID them. Can't recall if the zoo has any copperheads in their snakes displays or not.

Wayne- hershey's kisses are the perfect description! Never heard that one before, but thank you for it- i'll use it from now on!

This site is great for snake ID.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snakes of NC

"Wayne, thanks for your info. I looked at your personal page and that is really quite impressive. Do you do anything besides see the snakes? Do you catalog them? Is that part of your job?"

I observe them, take pictures, and catalog information about when, where, temperature etc. and occasionally share noteworthy information with professional herpetologists. I teach college (sociology rather than herpetology) for a living and study snakes in the wild as a leisurely pastime :-).