Went for a walk to restore my vital brain juices. The air is damp, thundery, and oppressive, and of course, the farther I walked, the more thunder we got, leading me to believe that I should probably turn around and head home. But I stopped at the usual bend in the stream I walk down to, and was rewarded by the sight of a medium sized snake–I’d put him at between 12 and 16 inches–draped over a branch by the water. As I watched, he slowly uncurled and slid down into the water, then snaked his way across the stream. He worked his way along the opposite bank for a bit, then found a spot to slide up, and draped himself over a little bar of mucky leaves there.

I strongly suspect he was a brown water snake, being a reasonably slender, light brown snake with distinct deeper brown stripes. It is not impossible that he was a thin, light colored cottonmouth, however, so I stayed well enough away. It doesn’t pay to mess with strange snakes. He was very pretty, though.

And now, back to the grindstone!

Brown Water Snake
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/projects/herpcons/herps_of_NC/snakes/Ner_tax.html

Cottonmouth
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/projects/herpcons/herps_of_NC/snakes/Agk_pis.html