To be honest, I didn't really use any key diagnostic characters to tell them apart. I've just seen enough eastern milk and northern watersnake photos to be able to tell them apart by their general gestalt.

I guess the shape of the head (not much bigger than the body diameter), the head scalation, the smoothness of the scales, the shape of the body blotches, and even the way it is laying all work together to lead to it being a milksnake.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

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